Path: utzoo!hoptoad!amdcad!pyramid!voder!tolerant!unisv!vanpelt
From: vanpelt@unisv.UUCP (Mike Van Pelt)
Newsgroups: alt.aquaria
Subject: Re: Fresh water plants
Message-ID: <334@unisv.UUCP>
Date: 3 May 88 18:21:01 GMT
References: <317@unisv.UUCP> <28007@yale-celray.yale.UUCP>
Reply-To: vanpelt@.UUCP (Mike Van Pelt)
Organization: Unisys Silicon Valley, San Jose, CA
Lines: 32

In article <28007@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> Ram-Ashwin@cs.yale.edu (Ashwin Ram) writes:
>- Try plant plugs or peat pots.
I have.  Didn't seem to help.
>
>- If there is copper in your tank (most medications have copper), it's bye-bye
>plants.
I quit using copper after someone in a fish store told me about how
clown loaches will rid a tank of snails in nothing flat.  That was a
number or water changes ago.  (Boy, those clown loaches go through
snails like Sherman through Georgia!)

Come to think of it, though, my last attempt at pots & peat plugs may have
been while I was dumping enough copper in the tank to turn the fish green
in an (entirely futile) attempt to control the snails.
>
>- Do you have enough gravel?  You need at least 2-3 inches of gravel for
>rooted plants; 4-6 inches is even better.
>
I've got about 4-5 inches of gravel.

One thing that might be relevant -- San Jose has extremely hard, alkaline
water.  I'm using phosphoric acid to neutralize it (the heck with those
little bottles of 30% stuff you get at pet stores; I got a bottle of 90%
at a chemical supply house.  I've used about half of it.) which should also
be good for the plants.  A friend of mine once told me that he preferred to
use hydrochloric (VERY carefully, and let the water stand for a couple of
days) to get it near pH 7 then fine-tune with phosphoric.  Any ideas here?
Should plants have soft water?  

-- 
Mike Van Pelt           Unisys, Silicon Valley            vanpelt@unisv.UUCP
Bring back UNIVAC!                              ...uunet!ubvax!unisv!vanpelt