[plantbrain]

Your tap water is not the problem with growing this plant.
Your dosing and water changing are.

RO is not going to help you. Doing some water changes and dosing properly will.

I had a GH of 24 and a KH of 10, I can grow most anything in that water.
Now I have a KH to 3 and Gh of 5. Same thing.

Plants don't care about the KH and GH as long as there is some(CO2 in the case of KH).
I do not know what too high of a KH or GH is really. 24-25 is pretty darn high, about 99.9% of tap waters are lower than this.


reagrds,
Tom Barr

 

[plantbrain]

Well, the condition should clear up with routine weekly 50-70% water changes and good dosing thereafter.
I think many folks underdose their KNO3.
I dose a fair amount of KNO3 and unless you derive 75% of your Nitrogen needs from fish waste, you will always have enough K+.

So adding K2SO4 etc is not needed unless you want to alter the level independently and see how higher levels effect plants.
I've never found any differences.
So I don't bother. One less thing to dose.

I dose KNO3/KH2PO4 right after the water change
I dose the traces the next day.

I dose every other day with the macros on days 1,3,5,7 and the traces and days 2,4,6.

This should take good care of the plant needs.

So per dose on your 40 gal add:
10mls of traces(TMG or Flourish)
KNO3 1/4 to a 1/3 teaspoon
KH2PO4, about 1/16th, (1/4 divided into 4 parts)

Up your CO2 to 30ppm or so, never less than 20ppm.

Do that, I do not think your plants will hate you.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[plantbrain]

You ask for good growth and then when you get you all complain

Slower growing species, more wood, rock etc, less light will slow things down as far as the work.

Dosing:
I do not think it matters too much but it's easy as far as a habit.
That is a personal issues rather than plant issue.
3-4x a week is fine, you can miss a day or two.

With less light, 2x a week even once a week in low light CO2 tanks will work.

Regards,
Tom Barr