soft water

I've been out of the hobby for 10 to 15 years, i kept fresh and salt water fish for 30 years before that. i did try to get some plants growing in a 90 gallon fresh water tank with 4 T12s most just died but one did grow great, think it was water sprite.

I'm not much of a computer person but a friend showed me one of Dustin's you tube videos and i have been watching as many planted tank videos as i can for the last few weeks before setting up a tank.

So i was watching a Q&A Dustin had a week or so ago and one of the questions answer was the problem may be soft water. Where i live in Washington we have very soft water, I plan on a low tech low light 40b tank i bought a stingray light and will get some of Dustin's dirt capped with pool filter sand,

I was wondering if i will need to add minerals to the water i do want to keep some snails, shrimp and a few small tetra fish.

Ted

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Permalink Reply by MIMI on February 9, 2017 at 5:01pm

Need more info to help you with this. Come on chat and we will be able to help you through discussion.

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Permalink Reply by Ted Downing on February 9, 2017 at 5:24pm

Sorry but i type far to slow to do that chat thing (took 15 min to type the above)

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Permalink Reply by Ted Downing on February 11, 2017 at 11:42am

Let me clarify my question i kinda rambled on in the first post.

i know the root feeding plants will get nourishment from the dirt in the tank but will minerals from the dirt leach into the water column to support stem and floating plants?