Hello,
I've had a 5.5g betta tank established with a few plants (swords, willow moss, mondo grass) for a bit over a month now. The problem I'm seeing, however, is absolutely no plant growth at all. They are all alive, and seem fine, but have virtually stayed at their exact height.
My suspicion is that it's the water-- pH somewhat above 8, GH and kH both extremely high (kH>300, GH somewhere around 13). The water around here is basically liquid limestone. I have a 15w screw-in 6500k CFL above it and I run it about 12 hours a day, and it also receives light from a north-facing window.
My question is: how do I get them to grow? I know that my water is high in carbonate, and I've heard that will greatly decrease the available CO2, but I don't have the funds to always have soft water on hand instead (and all of my fish are doing quite well in this hardness, actually). What is your advice? I'm looking for a decent cost to production ratio, I suppose, but really I just want all of it to start growing in thickly to make my betta happier.
I've had a 5.5g betta tank established with a few plants (swords, willow moss, mondo grass) for a bit over a month now. The problem I'm seeing, however, is absolutely no plant growth at all. They are all alive, and seem fine, but have virtually stayed at their exact height.
My suspicion is that it's the water-- pH somewhat above 8, GH and kH both extremely high (kH>300, GH somewhere around 13). The water around here is basically liquid limestone. I have a 15w screw-in 6500k CFL above it and I run it about 12 hours a day, and it also receives light from a north-facing window.
My question is: how do I get them to grow? I know that my water is high in carbonate, and I've heard that will greatly decrease the available CO2, but I don't have the funds to always have soft water on hand instead (and all of my fish are doing quite well in this hardness, actually). What is your advice? I'm looking for a decent cost to production ratio, I suppose, but really I just want all of it to start growing in thickly to make my betta happier.