Wanting to Add Plants to Tank But Worried about pH

[Logangus119]

Howdy!

I am looking to get into plant keeping and hoping to get some questions answered. The tap water where I live has a high pH, high KH, and low GH. I included a picture of a test strip. I'm worried the pH will be too high for the plants to survive. If this is true, what are the best chems to lower the pH that can be bought by the gallon and is fish friendly? 

P.S. I'm looking at adding some bacopa carolinia, amazon sword, java fern, anubias, and water sprite.

 

[Rube_Goldfish]

It might not be the easiest or most affordable, but the safest and most effective "chemical" to add might be reverse osmosis water. I use a 1:1 ratio of RO to tap because I've got the same water: high pH, high KH, low GH. Also worth noting that I remineralize with Seachem Equilibirum to bring the GH up to about 6 degrees.

Most of the other ways of bringing pH down are going to struggle against a high KH, which would have to be depleted first. Maybe someone else has some insight.

[Mmiller2001]

I agree, RO is a good route and doesn't have to be expensive. Just getting the water down to 20TDS is more than sufficient. Also, building the water back to the desired parameters is dirt cheap if you are willing to do a few extra steps. Check your local hydroponic store. With legalization in many states, prices are way down on grower design RO systems. You don't have to get a 7 stage system. 

Also, completely ignore pH, it's mostly meaningless. Get the GH and KH right, and all will fall into place.