60 gallon tank can’t grow plants

[Daniel]

0.01 M sodium hydroxide would have a pH of 12.

[KBOzzie59]

Seriouosly, a pH of 12?  Have you accidently tested a bottle of chlorox?  If you are on a public water system someone needs to recalibrate the chlorine residual analyzer.

"Scientifically speaking, pH measures the concentration of hydrogen ion in a solution. It’s based on a scale where 7 is considered neutral. Solutions with a lower concentration of hydrogen ions have a higher pH (basic), and those with a higher concentration are low pH (acidic). For example, orange juice has a pH of 3.3, which means it’s acidic. Black coffee has a pH of about 5, baking soda is around 9, and bleach has a pH of 12. There aren’t many foods or drinks humans consume that are over the neutral pH of 7.0."

https://intermountainhealthcare.org/blogs/topics/live-well/2017/06/does-the-ph-level-of-your-drinking-water-really-matter/

[KBOzzie59]

4 hours ago, tekjunkie28 said:

That's crazy. But if it's healthy alkaline water then I would drink it. It has numerous health benefits as long as it doesn't contain contaminates. 

I've never considered bleach a healthy beverage.  

[Mmiller2001]

Go buy a pouch of Purigen and toss it in your filter. That will clear the water in a day or so. You say your GH and KH are okay, but what are they? You need to add calcium and magnesium to your RO water if you are not mixing it with tap water. A 2:1 ratio is fine. Also, you wrote that you add Flourish to the RO water. If that's true, you need to dose the volume of the tank and not just the RO volume. 

[ScottEsh]

8 hours ago, Fish Folk said:

@MJV Aquatics is spot on. Your RO water plus tannins are totally inhospitable to plants. Tannins make it difficult for light to maintain PAR through your tank depth. Mix your high TDS mineralized water with RO. However, get a very reliable reading first. What can happen is that the tannins will cut through the buffer minerals (RO has _no_ buffer) and the tannins will start to Yo-Yo with pH. You might add crushed coral to your substrate to help add GH / buffer to the water. But this is all why your plants won’t grow. I’m guessing your pH right now is way down near 6.0. How do you get pH 7.4 and hardness? What test are you using? 

I use the api test strips .  And you are right I can’t get the of to balance out which was causing me to loose fish.  This tank sucks!!!

[Celly Rasbora]

Maybe embrace the tannins? A lot of fish love it. I'd be happy to have it, myself. I see anubias and java moss in that tank. You can grow old waiting for them to grow.

ETA: invest in root tabs. The other plants will thrive.

 

Edited March 16, 2021 by Celly Rasbora

[Patrick_G]

Are you using an API test kit? Can you post pics of your tests? 

[ScottEsh]

1 hour ago, Patrick_G said:

Are you using an API test kit? Can you post pics of your tests? 

Ran out of the api strips but used tetra strips

first picture is straight from the tap using warm water (softener water)

Also this is result of api master test kit. 

Second strip test is with cold water from the faucet..

it usually is around 300gh 

tds 552

Edited March 17, 2021 by ScottEsh

[DSH OUTDOORS]

1 hour ago, ScottEsh said:

Ran out of the api strips but used tetra strips

first picture is straight from the tap using warm water (softener water)

Also this is result of api master test kit. 

Second strip test is with cold water from the faucet..

it usually is around 300gh 

tds 552

I think you don't have much to lose using cold/luke warm for water changes out of your tap. Start with small water changes to acclimate your fish to the harder water. Your plants will only benefit from your tap water. 

I feel like you got beat up a bit on this post, in the end I hope bringing it here helps yours plants and saves you some cash on water and miles on your car. Keep us updated if you decide to try your tap water moving forward. 

Best if luck to you and your tank.

[AquaAggie]

I think you have already received most of the answers that are going to help. A few other things I know Cory has a video and he talk about the API test strips  not being accurate but that tetra is near as good as the master test kit for the convenience. Also it looks like you have a banana plant and it may be too buried down in the substrate. It appears your wood pieces are to big to build but you could consider putting them in a tote and filling with  hottest tap water you can get or even boiling water and letting them sit while replacing the water daily. That will leach out mor tannins faster but will still take some time. I had smaller pieces that I boiled for about two days and still ended up leaching some. Lastly you can get stuff to grow in that tank at that depth if you get the water right. I have the same tank and my plants are doing well albeit with different water. Good luck. And your large wood piece looks super cool

Edited March 17, 2021 by AquaAggie

[1moretank]

15 hours ago, ScottEsh said:

I started this tank over a month ago and can’t get anything to grow. 
the water test say ph 7.4 ish

hardness and kh are ok

i have a small stock of fish in the tank 12 black neons, 1 pearl gourami, 2 molly, 2 Cory cats and a Chinese algae eater.

tank light is a fluval plant 3.0

im doing 25% water change weekly with ro water. Then add some sea chem flourish only 2ml per gallon 

tank will do nothing....

Lots of good advice given.  Beautiful hardscape.  Sometimes the easiest thing to do is the right one.  Maybe stop changing water and lift the java fern and banana plant out of the substrate a bit.  Test your water after a week and just watch.  When the plants start getting nutrients they will grow.  When they grow I think they might help clear up the tannins some or at least make it less obvious, plus the tannins will fade on their own.  Good luck. 

[ScottEsh]

17 hours ago, KBOzzie59 said:

Seriouosly, a pH of 12?  Have you accidently tested a bottle of chlorox?  If you are on a public water system someone needs to recalibrate the chlorine residual analyzer.

"Scientifically speaking, pH measures the concentration of hydrogen ion in a solution. It’s based on a scale where 7 is considered neutral. Solutions with a lower concentration of hydrogen ions have a higher pH (basic), and those with a higher concentration are low pH (acidic). For example, orange juice has a pH of 3.3, which means it’s acidic. Black coffee has a pH of about 5, baking soda is around 9, and bleach has a pH of 12. There aren’t many foods or drinks humans consume that are over the neutral pH of 7.0."

https://intermountainhealthcare.org/blogs/topics/live-well/2017/06/does-the-ph-level-of-your-drinking-water-really-matter/

Found out my Hanna meter was not calibrated properly. I called the company and got it fixed...

[ScottEsh]

7 hours ago, 1moretank said:

Lots of good advice given.  Beautiful hardscape.  Sometimes the easiest thing to do is the right one.  Maybe stop changing water and lift the java fern and banana plant out of the substrate a bit.  Test your water after a week and just watch.  When the plants start getting nutrients they will grow.  When they grow I think they might help clear up the tannins some or at least make it less obvious, plus the tannins will fade on their own.  Good luck. 

My banana plant has been like that since day 1 but when I put the other one I bought in a 32 gallon tank that I used only ro water in. The thing sent a Lilly-pad up to the top in 2 days.