Best plants to grow in hard water?

[JoeM]

 Looking to get some more plants. The first round of mostly died or is melting back? im not sure. Instead of fighting my water parameters im looking for plants will survive (most likely) in my hard water. I have liquid rock well water lots of iron, and a tap water softener. I started with just conditioned tap water. NOT GOOD. no minerals. added equilibrium that helped.  Now im mixing in the well water with water changes. My lily bulbs took off. Like inches per day its crazy. . So what other plants will thrive in almost liquid rock? 

[Plutoids Mom]

I have hard water with high iron too.  In my measly month of experience (so take it for what it's worth), corkscrew val and crypts are doing really well.  I'm aging my well water a week to get some of the iron out and adding a little bit of RO water from the grocery store.

[JoeM]

Nice, high iron where i am. limestone bed rock runs throughout the area. Im only 4 months in myself. i actually just planted a crypt a week ago seems ok so far and some tall hair grass. My lily bulb like i said is going nuts but that's after a 3 months of slowly growing roots in my tap water. 

[Tanked]

I wish there was one answer to that question. Tetra strips say that I have "very hard" water, whatever that means.  My oldest successful plant is Anubia Nana.  My newest is PSO (octopus).  The most vigorous grower is Anacharis.  Hornwort grows quite well.  I have other plants: crypts, vals, ferns... but the three I mentioned are the standouts for the moment.

[Tamitha]

I have water with high iron (iron ore was mined here), extremely hard (so hard I can’t find a test that goes that high), and high ph. In two years I’ve successfully grown dwarf sag, swords, corkscrew val, jungle val, crypts, guppy grass, frog bit, salvinia, subwassertang and dwarf aquarium lily. Anubias and crinums survive but certainly don’t thrive or even grow. I gave up on mosses, my marimo balls were the size of ping pong balls two years ago and are now the size of baseballs. I tried about ten other plants that just melted away to nothing, roots and all. 

[JoeM]

My  "unkillable" java fern turned black, Anubis disappeared and  amazon swords all the leaves melted it has a little green left on the shoot mabeye it'll come back , but im not hopeful.Water sprite and hair grass all melted I have an octopus and dwarf sag on the way. We shall see.

 

[Tamitha]

I wish I could remember the name of my sword plants, all I know is they aren’t amazon. I tried amazon but they died. I got these from my lfs. I have more success when I can buy locally grown plants, thankfully my lfs is excellent at bringIng in locally raised plants and fish. 

[Tanked]

I have killed or almost killed 10 of the 14 "unkillable", "easy to grow" beginner plants that I have tried.  My Java Fern isn't dead but it also isn't happy The Wisteria  flourished and then died, as did the Water Sprite, Moneywort...  Be sure that your plants are actually dead*. Some plants may require weeks to comeback after they melt. 

Part of that "balance" thing is to find plants that like your environment.  Jungle Val won't grow in my aquarium, but the Italian Val is spreading. The youngest and healthiest of my Anubia is growing closest to the HOB filter in the darkest part of the tank. The parent plant on the bright side of the aquarium is 2+ years old and looks like a different plant.

You did not mention fertilizer.  Even with hard water you plants may need a little something extra. Do they show signs of deficiencies?  I use Easy Green, but some of the plants still need the occasional root tab.

*The Moneywort below put down a single root into the gravel, died and rotted off or so I thought.

[JoeM]

I got easy green, iron, carbon , and seachem products pot. phosphates, micronutrients to give an extra boost if need be. Just started dosing extra , so we will see what happens. my crypt looks good after two weeks. Mabeye some of melted plants will come back i didn't rip any out for that reason. 

[KaitieG]

I have extremely hard water and have had good success with anubias, red flame sword with root tabs, and a variety of crypts.  Val and swarf sag are still in the wait and see stages. Had no success with Java moss until I got some locally from a hobbiest.  I have killed every single Java fern I've tried...from several different sources.