Hey Tom!

[DavidR]

Just looked over your post at APC, and I gotta say those plants are gorgeous! I also noticed you're growing them in very soft water. I have nasty hard water and I hate it--not so much the hardness--it's just nasty water!

What would you say to the idea of growing plants in 100% R/O water, Onyx substrate, and using Seachem's Equilibrium (or the Barr mix) to add the necessary hardness/calcium/magnesium? I'm not really going out of my way with the RO, since I'll be setting up a reef tank fairly soon. Ideas and/or suggestions?

 

[Tom Barr]

Re: Hey Tom!

Just looked over your post at APC, and I gotta say those plants are gorgeous! I also noticed you're growing them in very soft water. I have nasty hard water and I hate it--not so much the hardness--it's just nasty water!

Most plants have no such requirement, these do and that's why they are of interest to me.

Folks rattle on and on about how they need this or that, seems they just need low KH to do well, most true hydrophytes prefer harder water where they can use bicarbonate(KH).

My KH is about 3.
I blend RO water ~1/4 tap to get this level.

What would you say to the idea of growing plants in 100% R/O water, Onyx substrate, and using Seachem's Equilibrium (or the Barr mix) to add the necessary hardness/calcium/magnesium? I'm not really going out of my way with the RO, since I'll be setting up a reef tank fairly soon. Ideas and/or suggestions?

A waste, simply use the tap you have for the the KH/Gh additions and tiop off with some GH booster if needed.

This 1/4 cut with tap is wise since it adds the make up stuff, including KH, the plan you have here does not say anything about KH, you might be suggesting that also?

Just blend it and that way you waste less water and still add the stuff.

100% RO + make up with Ca/Mg/KH is just one more PITa thing to do.
Blending is easy.

Regards,
Tom Barr