Weird kH/gH discrepancy...why aren't my plants growing?
 

On 8/1/03 6:22 PM, in article
, "Iain Miller"
wrote:

and I replaced the tubes yesterday (PowerGlo and SunGlo were originally in
it, replaced the SunGlo with a FloraGlo, and changed to a fresh PowerGlo).

I use Life-Glo's - a bit more expensive but highly effective.

I was planning on getting one of those, however the store's display of tubes
wasn't lit up so I couldn't compare the colors and had to go by the labels,
wasn't sure if the Life-Glo was the correct spectrum for plants, and since
it was twice as much as a Power-Glo, I didn't try it. The tank's a
Tropiquarium...not really suitable for retrofitting, and I've messed with
the wiring in the hood so many times I'm afraid to touch it again...

I tend to leave bodies in the tank if they're not diseased

How can you tell? I'm not sure that's such a good idea.

Generally they've been beaten up if I find them dead, otherwise they just
disappear, and it's usually only rather isolated incidents with the rest of
the tank not being affected.


I'm assuming my water's not loaded with phosphates...it comes
out of the tap hard as a rock, though.

So I'm wondering if it's something that's accumulated in the water that
might be causing problems, like minerals from the unusually high gH
reading?
I really don't want to do massive water changes, too afraid of completely
throwing everything out of whack. If there's a chance the gH is part of
the
problem, how could I lower that without phucking with my kH/adding
phosphates and causing an algae bloom/etc?

You can get water softening pillows that you put in the tank that will
reduce the Gh.

I'd heard those contained phosphates, though? Wouldn't that screw
everything up?

If it's not likely to be part of the problem, what else would be most
likely
to be causing the problem? And should I somehow try and reduce the amount
of CO2 my tank's getting? It's a yeast reactor...

Surface movement or an airstone....

So it is too high, even if the fish aren't gasping?