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Re: Slow Growth



I wrote:

>> my plants require it).  I have had pH fluctuation problems in the past,
but
>> it's been steady at about 6.5 for the past few weeks.


Roger Miller wrote:

>I'm surprised that a planted tank with no added CO2 would have a pH of
>6.5.  Is that higher or lower than it used to be?


Higher, believe it or not.  There are two new pieces of bogwood in the tank
(bought about two months ago).  If I skip a water change one weekend, I have
to make sure I do the next weekend, or my pH goes way down (it was down to
about 5.2 a few weeks ago).

This despite my tap water -- which comes out at 7.5.  The bogwood is
impressive stuff -- we've tried to get the pH down, using boiled peat and
other methods, in other tanks (we keep apistos) and it doesn't work nearly
as well.  We can't get it lower than about 6.5 in our breeding tanks.

It sounds as though a number of you keep your tanks at 7.0 or higher --
which surprises me, because I used to keep my pH that high, and my stem
plants didn't seem to like it much (especially rotala).