Italian Val, Green Cabomba, and Ludwigia Repens Questions

Byron

I would assume something in the aquarium is raising the pH (and prob hardness). Calcareous rock or gravel/sand will do this. What type of substrate do you have and are there any real rocks?

TFish

All I have in there is gravel (which is probably the source of the problem), but I don't remeber what type. I got it at walmart. This obviously isn't much help though...

Byron

I would expect it is. Is it white or light tan? As you have a 10g, it won't take much gravel to replace it. Your fish selection will be limited with hard basic water.

TFish

It was some white, but its mosly tan. I plan to just have guppies and platies, which I believe would be fine in it. My main conern is the plants, though. Will they be ok with this pH? I am putting a peice of driftwood in. How much will the driftwood affect the pH. It's about 18 inches long and 2 inches in diameter.

Byron

If you plan on livebearers only (and there are a few other fish that could manage in basic water) then I agree, it will be fine. Plants are quite adaptable, some species less than others; check our profiles, I have been adding plants when I can and we have quite a selection now. Water parameters are indicated for each same as for our fish profiles. Just off the top, Vallisneria spiralis would thrive in your tank; it absolutely loves harder water because it assimilates carbon from bicarbonates (which are higher in hard water) more than from CO2.

One piece of wood or even more is not going to have much of an impact on pH, especially when you have calcareous gravel as I suspect it may be. But as I said, that will work fine for the fish you mention.

redchigh

Green Cabomba may not like the harder water, but the rest will be fine.
Go ahead and try the cabomba, but don't spend a lot of money on it.

Oh, and I think I know the gravel that you have... It was sold as "Aquarium Gravel" right?

I would say that your tap water is 7.8, but the water coming fresh from the tap has a lot of CO2... CO2 lowers ph, so as an experiment, get a bucket of tap water, run an airstone in it for about 10 minutes. The PH should raise.

If you have DW and the CO2 is the problem, it will probably lower a little bit (depending on the wood.)
May want to boil it first to release the majority of the tannins... I placed a relatively large piece of driftwood in one tank tand the PH went from 7.0 to 5.9 in two days... Oddly enough the PH stabilised at 6.4.... *shrug*

Byron

That's true, I had forgotten about the CO2 in tap water. Glad you spotted that redchigh, thanks.

TFish

It probably is the Co2 thing. I just ran the strip under the water...

TFish

Planting is done!



How do you like it?

redchigh

Looks nice. Will probably have to move them further back pretty soon. :)