Very Very Hard Water

Taylor

New Member
Nov 10, 2018
5
1
3
30
Montana
I have a 75 gallon high tech planted tank. I do ei dosing plus add dtpa iron chelate just before lights turn on and the ph is around 7. Co2 and water flow seem to be sufficient. My tap water after I've aerated it over night is ph 8, gh 37, and kh 33. Crypts and swords seem to do alright but I've never had much luck with stem plants. They all seem to grow stunted. Is my hard water to blame for this or is there still something I'm doing wrong.
 
Aug 3, 2017
57
17
8
32
Milan, Italy
I’ve been on the fence about getting one but I think I need one at this point.

It appears that way. I have a KH of 12 and a GH of 18 which are considered extremely hard values. I was hesitant at first but then I realised; switching to RO was the best thing I have ever done since I started the hobby.

I use CaSO4 and MgSO4 to get 28ppm Ca ( 3.92 dGH ) and 8ppm Mg ( 1.85 dGH ), ratio 3.5:1, resulting in a total dGH of 5.77.

I use Seachem Alkaline Buffer to get a KH of 2.
 

Taylor

New Member
Nov 10, 2018
5
1
3
30
Montana
Ok thank you. I’ve been fighting this since I set the tank up in February and until now I had no idea what the issue was.
 

fortnite

New Member
Mar 18, 2020
4
0
1
37
pakistan
containexcessive amount of calcium and magnesium"}" data-sheets-userformat="{"2":14464,"10":2,"14":[null,2,0],"15":"Calibri","16":11}" data-sheets-formula="=R[0]C[-7]&R[0]C[-6]&R[0]C[-5]&R[0]C[-4]&R[0]C[-3]&R[0]C[-2]&R[0]C[-1]" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, Arial;">hard water <a href="https://watersoftenershub.com">contain</a>excessive amount of calcium and magnesium
 

Claudio

New Member
Nov 4, 2019
11
1
3
Rome, Italy
It depends. I live in Rome and we have very hard water (GH = 20 from the tap), with a lot of Ca and Mg.
As long as the sodium is low, you can find some plants that do well in this water.
In the past I had good experiences with:
Hygrophila corymbosa
Egeria densa
Myriophyllum aquaticum (but NOT in the same tank of Egeria)
Najas guadalupensis

Other people are reporting good experiences with other species of Hygrophila.

Other stem plants, probably the most part, will require softer water, but if you do not want to buy RO you can search for plants that like hard water.
 

dav.tomassini

New Member
Jul 16, 2017
10
2
3
NL
Ciao Claudio, I was born in Rome and I live in The Netherlands. Tap water here is hard: kh=gh=10. But what worries me is the 60 ppn Sodium content. The tank has been recently rescaped, so I can't tell yet how plants are doing. I am overdosing K above Na level in the hope that this mitigates the Na impact. Should I keep trying, or with this sodium level it is just a waste of time?

By the way, I have RO...but it is more work to use it with 50% weekly water changes in my 120l tank...

Grazie.

Davide
 

Claudio

New Member
Nov 4, 2019
11
1
3
Rome, Italy
Hi,
yes, sodium is a problem.
Hardness itself is not a problem, but only if sodium is very low.

I do not have personal experiences with high sodium contents. There is a report on an Italian website (Acquariofilia Consapevole 3.0) with a list of plants that can thrive in high sodium levels (not a long list indeed), otherwise the only way is to reduce the amount of sodium using RO water.

The plants that are listed that can adapt to high levels of sodium are: Bacopa monnieri, Hygrophyla corymbosa, Hygrophyla difformis, Crinum calamistratum, Egeria densa, Elodea canadensis, Najas marina, Najas indica, Ceratophyllum demersum, Salvinia sp., Lilaeopsis carolinensis, Sagittaria subulata, Nymphoides aquatica, Cryptocoryne lingua, Cryptocoryne pontederiifolia, Cryptocoryne moehlmannii, Cryptocoryne ciliata, Microsorum pteropus, Samolus valerandi, Vesicularia dubyana, Taxiphyllum barbieri, smaller Anubias.

I did not tested these, but the font is a reputable one that is growing plants in brackish water tanks with very high levels of sodium.