Will plants survive in my tank?

eruuska

Hello everyone,

My 30 gallon tank is now a few months old and well-stocked with healthy fish, a couple of cool rocks and lots of cheesy-looking plastic plants. I really would like to introduce some REAL plants, but I'm concerned about my water parameters.

My pH is around 8.0-8.4, GH is around 150, KH is about 180. I have a CO2 bottle (formerly used for pressurizing home-brewed beer).

Is my water hospitable to plant life? I know I need to upgrade my lighting, and purchase extra hoses and such for the CO2, but that's not a problem.

I asked about plants at my LFS, and the guy told me the pH needs to be around 4. Frankly, that sounds way too acidic for animal life, so I thought I'd ask the REAL experts here on FishForum.

Thoughts? Thanks in advance,

Eric

aunt kymmie

A ph pf 4 for plants? I can't imagine that ever working very well for most plants. I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination but I have plants growing just fine in 7.8. I don't use pressurized Co2, just tabs & ferts & decent lighting. I'd say check out the ph recommendatioons for the plants you want and just go for it!

cerianthus

Did I read it correctly? pH of 4. Dont know if fish will survive. I am not going to try to find out either. Let the staff who told you to keep pH at 4 try and give you the result!!

Although pH will drop w/ CO2 injection, especially overnight, massive fish can die-off due to extra CO2 produced by your livestock in dark where no photosynthesis take splace to use up CO2. To prevent this, used to give sporadic aeration on timer to ensure fish dont suffocate overnight when used CO2 injection. I had lots of fish/plants, way over the limit of 1"per gal rule.