I admit, that I have never tested my water, before today. I haven't lost any
fish, but my lilies only get 1 or 2 blooms and the leaves are quite small.
Could the plant problem be because of the alkalinity and PH?
My alkalinity(KH) reading was extremely high, 300ppm and my PH was over 8.
I read an earlier post about baking soda. Will this lower my alkalinity?
Also, I have very hard water. Should I soften it? Would water softener salt
do the trick?
Thank you,
ShawnAnne

With a KH of 300 you don't need any of the baking soda. You put it in to
raise KH. The water softener salt works in a water softener to give an ion
exchange to remove the calcium and magnesium from the water on resin beads.
In the pond, it will not do anything but raise the salt level. Hard water
is not a problem, as far as I know for plants, and soft water is missing
some of the main minerals needed for plants and fish.

Have you fertilized the lilies? If so, when and how much? My hardy lilies
have smaller pads than the tropicals, and fewer blooms.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html


"GaneaRowenna" wrote in message
...
I admit, that I have never tested my water, before today. I haven't lost
any
fish, but my lilies only get 1 or 2 blooms and the leaves are quite small.
Could the plant problem be because of the alkalinity and PH?
My alkalinity(KH) reading was extremely high, 300ppm and my PH was over 8.
I read an earlier post about baking soda. Will this lower my alkalinity?
Also, I have very hard water. Should I soften it? Would water softener
salt
do the trick?
Thank you,
ShawnAnne

With a KH of 300 you don't need any of the baking soda. You put it in to
raise KH.

What do I do to lower thr KH? Or is this not a big problem?

Have you fertilized the lilies? If so, when and how much? My hardy lilies
have smaller pads than the tropicals, and fewer blooms.

I have not fertilized the lilies. What do I use for that? I don't want to
hurt my fish.

ShawnAnne

The KH is not a problem that high, but if it was to be lowered, use muratic
acid. Be careful, do it slow, and monitor the KH. The KH needs to be above
40 always to prevent a pH crash, and over 100 is much better, and for a bead
filter, it needs to be above 200.

I use PondTabbs which are available at most pond suppliers or the internet.
It is one tab per gallon of soil once or twice a month.
--
RichToyBox
http://www.geocities.com/richtoybox/pondintro.html


"GaneaRowenna" wrote in message
...
With a KH of 300 you don't need any of the baking soda. You put it in to
raise KH.

What do I do to lower thr KH? Or is this not a big problem?

Have you fertilized the lilies? If so, when and how much? My hardy
lilies
have smaller pads than the tropicals, and fewer blooms.

I have not fertilized the lilies. What do I use for that? I don't want
to
hurt my fish.

ShawnAnne

GaneaRowenna wrote:

I have not fertilized the lilies. What do I use for that? I don't want to
hurt my fish.

Use fertilizer sticks or tablets. Just push them into the container.

Joe



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