# Hard water & Planted tanks



## sandeepraghuvanshi (Feb 22, 2007)

I have just moved to a new place and will be setting up a small planted tank.
Tank size 60X30x45 cm, ada substrate, pressurised Co2, lights 70 w.
Now this location has exceedingly hard water, although I have read that hard water is good for planted tanks, but I believe my water is too hard.
Data is as follows.

Calcium as Ca 82 mg/l
Magnessium as Mg 75 mg/l
Total hardness as CaCo3 520 mg/l
Now if I convert Caco3 hardness to KH, it comes out to be 29.13.(hope my calculations are correct)
I have used the formula 
I kh= 17.848 mg /l
I have never encountered water of hardness kh=29.13
Even the KH/PH chart I have stops at KH = 15.
Please note that this water is not used for drinking, we have a RO plant for that.
Any inputs on having planted tanks in such hard water.


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## kamel_007 (Jan 7, 2006)

since you have high KH, high CaCo3 you can't keep plants need acidic water such as rotala macrandra, hard water is good for plants and dont forget to add CO2 system.
or you can mix it with R/O, but if you dont want to keep a sensitive plants its not necessary and costly.


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## aquabillpers (Apr 13, 2006)

Hi, Sandee (?),

Most plants will grow quite well in hard, alkaline water, but there are limits to their adaptability, and your water is well above that.

Why not use the water that you use for drinking to dilute the hard water? That would be a quick fix, and if you kept the aquarium covered to retard evaporation, it wouldn't be overly expensive. You might have to treat the drinking water to remove the chlorine and/or chloramines.

Let us know how you are doing.

Good luck!

Bill


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## AaronT (Apr 26, 2004)

Why not use the RO water you have access to and reconstitute it?


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## sandeepraghuvanshi (Feb 22, 2007)

Thanks a lot for your replies.
My wife will kill me if I start using her RO system for my Aquariums on a regular basis.
However I will be using it sparingly, as it seems to be a common opinion.
As it is tank with ADA substrate, large water changes are required in the first month.
As I have pressurized Co2system, will having a high co2 concentration help me in this situation.
The plant list is, 
Hygrophila corymbosa, 
hygrophila angustifolia
Anubias nana, 
Ammania senegalensis,
Cryptocoryne pontederiifolia
Glossostigma
Dwarf Saggitaria
Although I have been keeping planted Aquariums for some time, but this is my first aquarium with presurrized co2, nutrient rich substrate.
Also I have never encountered water this hard.


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## MOR B. (Oct 9, 2003)

I believe u wont have any problems to use hard water for the plants u mentioned ...


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## countcoco (Dec 28, 2010)

sandeepraghuvanshi said:


> Thanks a lot for your replies.
> My wife will kill me if I start using her RO system for my Aquariums on a regular basis.
> However I will be using it sparingly, as it seems to be a common opinion.
> As it is tank with ADA substrate, large water changes are required in the first month.
> ...


Those plants will all do well in harder water. CO2 concentration and kH are inversely related, so you will have to inject more CO2 than hobbyists using tap water with average hardness values.

Here are some plants that IME prefer hard water:

downoi
Blyxa japonica
hydrocotyle sibthorpioides
any crypt from Sri Lanka
vallisineria
eriocaulon parkieri
syngonanthus belem
nymphea lotus lillies


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## sandeepraghuvanshi (Feb 22, 2007)

Okay, so set up the tank and after one week it looks like this.
Comments & suggestions welcome.


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