I am curious as to how acidic water effect my plants, my tap and tank water are proving to have very different effect on my snails shells which leads me to believe that because of my substrate (sts) and larger mass of driftwood my water in the tank as becoming acidic over time.
I also notice since starting to do 2x water changes a week (50-60%) that my plants are doing much better. I have also stopped dosing during this time because I am trying to see if I can spot a deficiency. Also to test if my fish waste alone is enough to feed my plants.
The acidity of the water in natural systems can have a profound effect on plants. Studies of acidified lakes show the decrease in the variety of plants that can do well at low pH (and ultimately the number is zero when the pH is too low). However in the aquarium I doubt there can be a noticeable difference while the pH remains in a broad range of 6 to 8.
The factors at play could be:
- availability of nutrients may change (i.e. iron, and other chelated traces can be more available at lower pH)
- the major carbon source can change; plants that prefer bicarbonate uptake will do better at higher ph, and plants which prefer CO2 better at lower ph (bicarbonate equilibrium)
- solubility of toxic elements; high pH tends to tie them up (as an example PO4 concentration is higher and can react with toxic metals) but at low pH metals may not be bound up.
- at some point, H+ becomes toxic to plants
- decomposer distribution changes (bacterial will drop off in the mid to low 6 range). This may effect ammonia levels. Snails, etc will die off at lower pH.
- chemical equilibrium's like the PO4 buffer (shifts towards H3PO4 as ph drops), and ammonia (shifts to HN4+ as pH drops), and may effect plants
Aquarium plants prefer the water more acidic (lower pH) than basic (higher pH). Fish are the opposite. However, your fish will adapt to the vast majority of public tap water, so this makes keeping basic plants easier. You don't need to remove and replace so much tank water unless you have a tank smaller than 30 gallons, then a couple of 50 percent water changes a week are necessary. Tanks 30 gallons or larger will do fine with one larger water change weekly. This is sufficient to keep the mineral levels high for the plants and the dissolved wastes out for the fish.
As for fertilizers, if you keep basic, undemanding plants, then the fertilizers the fish produce are enough to sustain the plants. Just feed the fish a varied diet.
That's what's weird, with a pH of 7.5 and kh and GH at 6-7 degrees I shouldn't have issues with my snail shells.
But ally snails die over time due to serious erosions of their shells. The same tap water use to hut in a smaller tank that is bare bottom and only floating plants, my snails thrive and don't have the same eroded shells.
I guess Soilless would be as close as we can get, I havent seen a PH nutrient chart for fully aquatic plants.. dont know if anyone has done enough research to make one or if its even applicable.. As long as it swings around neutral and not too far in either direction it should be fine.. The Fish Dont mind pH changes too much and this chart shows a variable pH could be more beneficial as allows a wider range of nutrient availability.. ie, If your having an iron or phosphorous deficiency it may be too high of a PH, a cal-mag deficiency could be due to too low of a pH.. if your pH swings from 6.0 to 7.0 then you got both ends covered... I keep my hydroponic garden at 5.5-6.5ph, but I dont keep fish/snails in the tank.
I know the cause is my 3in base of safe t sorb substrate. I am in the process of planning a full tear down and rescape using black beauty blasting sand. I know this stuff won't mess with my water parameters.
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