The key here is that my tank is a FULLY planted DISCUS tank.

"Brian" wrote in message
05.46...
1. It is an enduring myth that RO water is required to grow aquatic
plants. In fact, it makes growing plants more difficult. RO removes
many of the nutrients that aquatic plants require. In general, folks
with hard water have an easier time growing aquatic plants than folks
with soft water.

In my case, I choose to have a sof****er tank for sof****er fish. This
makes it more difficult to grow aquatic plants, as described above.


You're right about RO water not being beneficial to growing aquatic
plants. However, I must disagree with your statement that it is more
difficult to grow aquatic plants in soft water. My tap water is soft (KH=
20ppm, GH=40ppm) and I have no problem growing plants. For my CO2 injected
tanks, I can increase my hardness by adding a perforated container of
crushed coral to the tank. I keep my KH at 50 ppm only to keep my pH in an
acceptable range (I keep mine at 6.8). IMHO, soft water is much easier to
adjust than hard water. However, I agree that someone with hard water
should not try to make their water soft by adding nutrient depleted RO
water to their tank.

Brian

--
Brian's Planted Aquaria
http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~jrevenn