PH and plants

[macman7010]

My girl friend is just setting up a new aquarium. She wants to keep some plants, and has been using Flora Pride by Tetra Tec on the water, and added Laterite to the gravel.

The problem is her PH sticks at around 8.4. We have been adding Seachem Discus Buffer to attempt to lower it, but it appears as though it does not want to drop.

She currently only has 2 Amazon Micro Swords, but will the PH kill these and other plants. Is there any product that works well at lowering PH, and are there plants that are ok to keep in this type of water.

 

[malkore]

The plants will be ok, at least most plants will be. Some harder species will have issues with hard water.

Never, ever use chemical pH buffers, especially pH lowering agents. These contain acids which only temporarily drop your pH. The best way to lower your pH is to use a combination of distilled or Reverse Osmosis water, and mix it with some tap water. You have very hard water, so I'd suggest up to a 50/50 mix of the two. Doign that should lower your pH to 7.6-7.8, which is fine for almost all plants, and most fish.