Plants that do well in hard alkaline water

[Ellenquacker72]

Hey there! I have a single t5ho bulb over a 20g high/ tall. So im thinking that I should be able to grow low light plants though. My local water has a 8.3 ph and is quite hard. I know people say that more minerals are ok for most species, but are there any that do particularly well? I currently have java ferns and they aren't exactly thriving, and I've read mixed things about them in hard water. It keeps growing new leaves but after a week or two they die off so I'm constantly picking dead leaves off them. Any suggestions for good hard water plants? I was thinking along the lines of anacharis, hornwort or maybe anubias? I read somewhere that Val's do well in hard water but my lighting probably isn't good enough. I have no co2 and I am using pool filter sand. Thank you!

 

[aqua_chem]

A problem you're going to run into here is personal accountability. People really like to find things to blame their plant problems on, and hard water is one of the most common things. Because of this, you'll see all sorts of people claiming that hard water was bad for xxx plant but in fact it was their fault. Java fern, for example, will do perfectly fine in hard water. I've grown it in as hard as GH14/KH 15. I've also grown Rotala Wallicii and an erio in that water, both notorious soft water plants.


For you, a better question would be 'what plants can't I grow?'. Most likely you will find that you are more limited by tank setup that water conditions. You probably will have good enough light to grow vals and some hygrophila sp, in addition to crypts, ferns, anubias etc.

 

[Ellenquacker72]

Sorry if it sounded like I was blaming my fern problems on the water! I'm just at a loss of what could be wrong. The new leaves get brown spots that grow until the whole thing is brown and falls off. But new ones spurt up to take their place. So I have this long rhizome (?) with no leaves haha. Any idea what I could be doing that would cause this?

Thank you the advice! I'd never heard of hygrophila sp before and i like the look of it. I'll have to see what they have in stock next time I'm in the city.