So I've been seeing online some people letting tannins dye their water for a more natural river look. So I am wondering what the benefits would be for doing this in a bgk tank. I want to help my ghosts feel as at home in their natural environment as possible. Would this be a good idea? What are the benefits and drawbacks of this? Both for my fish, and the tank, decorations, filtration, etc.
Tannin Water color information request, bgk tank
- Thread starter aidenboyjon
- Start date
The darker water brings out a lot more color and activity in the fish as it more replicates it’s natural habitat and the darker water make colors come out a lot more. I don’t know about filtration but my tank took about a month and a half until it was clear after adding in soaked and boiled driftwood. Not sure about name drawbacks but as long as you have a nice light above it you’ll still be able to see everything. Im a big fan of dark water tanks. And for decorating the tank look up where bgk are found and just try to replicate what you would picture the description to look like
Tannins help stimulate the immune system of some fish, it would definitely be beneficial for blackwater fishes
I guess my main concern is if it'll ruin for example, the glass of my tank,, the glue, or the external box filter or beneficial bacteria, or the ph of my tank. I read that letting tannins dye your water can cause a ph crash and I've had these ghosts for over a year now, and would be devastated if I lost them just because I did something to the tank I didn't HAVE to do.
Unless you have almost 0 carbonates your water will be fine. Most water has carbonates for buffering. It should not influence any of those things
There are a number of ways to stain the water in a tanks and all do not involve tannins. Some can lower pH whiles others will not. However, tannins do not persist in water. Depending on the source, how long will vary. Here are the ones I use and what they offer and how long it will last.
Driftwood such a that from Malaysia will stain the water but over time this ability will get used up. Depending on how much wood, you may see the pH drop some.
Indian almond leaves will add tannins, mildly lower pH and add a bunch of healthful things to the water. You can get a similar result (but not as intense) from certain types of oak leaves. These will not persist and need regular additions of new leaves. Leaves are sldo great hiding places for some fish and they may even breed there. They also produce food for some fish as the leaves degrade.
Alder cones are great for staining and lowering pH. I am not sure of the health benefits.
Rooibos tea is great for staining, It does not lower pH (they may even raise it by .1 or so). They also add a lot of things beneficial for fish. It can go into a fin mesh bag in ones filter or it can be brewed like tea and poured into the tank (I do it this way).
Imo, unless the native waters for a fish are stained, they do not really belong in a stained water tank. However, there are other botanicals that one can have that do not stain and may impart benefits. Here is a site that sells these and should give useful info. I am not endorsing them only offering their info. I have never bought from them. https://tanninaquatics.com/
Driftwood such a that from Malaysia will stain the water but over time this ability will get used up. Depending on how much wood, you may see the pH drop some.
Indian almond leaves will add tannins, mildly lower pH and add a bunch of healthful things to the water. You can get a similar result (but not as intense) from certain types of oak leaves. These will not persist and need regular additions of new leaves. Leaves are sldo great hiding places for some fish and they may even breed there. They also produce food for some fish as the leaves degrade.
Alder cones are great for staining and lowering pH. I am not sure of the health benefits.
Rooibos tea is great for staining, It does not lower pH (they may even raise it by .1 or so). They also add a lot of things beneficial for fish. It can go into a fin mesh bag in ones filter or it can be brewed like tea and poured into the tank (I do it this way).
Imo, unless the native waters for a fish are stained, they do not really belong in a stained water tank. However, there are other botanicals that one can have that do not stain and may impart benefits. Here is a site that sells these and should give useful info. I am not endorsing them only offering their info. I have never bought from them. https://tanninaquatics.com/
The higher your buffering capacity, the less likely tannins will have an effect. I can add liquid peat, turn the tank dark brown, and barely see the fish and it does nothing to the PH since the KH of my tap water is 8 degrees. No effect on the tank or any of the equipment in the tank either. Ive been doing this for years with either liquid peat or sphagnum peat moss. It actually takes about 1 cup of peat to 12 cups of water to even drop the KH in half, which is a lot of peat. You can imagine how much driftwood would be in the tank to have the same effect.
Get a liquid KH/GH test kit and see what your tap water buffering capacity is
I have soft water- 83 ppm TDS or lower from my well. My GH tests at about 4-5 dg and KH between 3 and 4. I keep a tank with wild Altum angels. In order to get the TDS into the 50 - 60 ppm range and the pH in the range of 6.0, I use a mix of 11:9 RO/DI:Tap. I occasionally have to use muriatic acid on the chaging water to make the pH low enough to drop the level in the tank. This has a tendency to move toward 6.5 between weekly water changes.
I am adding alder cones, catappa leaves and rooibos to the tank. Only when I add a lot of new alder cones to both filters as well as new almond leaves do I see much effect on pH. The dual purpose of the RO/di water is to lower the TDS and, more importantly, to lower the KH in order to help with lowering the pH.
When I first got the angels they were recently imported from the wild and I had their tank running at about 25-30 ppm TDS and at a pH of 4.2. I had no botanicals in the water for this. I relied 100% on RO/DI and muratic acid. I spent 6 months gradually raising the parameters and adding the botanicals to get the parameters where they are today.
Peat can be pretty messy. It is also difficult to use in a bag in a filter in terms of keeping steady parameters in a tank. The best way to use it in a tank can be to create a concentrated liquid from it.
Finally, there is a good discussion on making Blackwater on Planetcafish. The thread is from Dec 2020 and was started by Shane Linder https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=49685&p=328778#p328778
I am adding alder cones, catappa leaves and rooibos to the tank. Only when I add a lot of new alder cones to both filters as well as new almond leaves do I see much effect on pH. The dual purpose of the RO/di water is to lower the TDS and, more importantly, to lower the KH in order to help with lowering the pH.
When I first got the angels they were recently imported from the wild and I had their tank running at about 25-30 ppm TDS and at a pH of 4.2. I had no botanicals in the water for this. I relied 100% on RO/DI and muratic acid. I spent 6 months gradually raising the parameters and adding the botanicals to get the parameters where they are today.
Peat can be pretty messy. It is also difficult to use in a bag in a filter in terms of keeping steady parameters in a tank. The best way to use it in a tank can be to create a concentrated liquid from it.
from https://fins.actwin.com/aquariafaq.html
Finally, there is a good discussion on making Blackwater on Planetcafish. The thread is from Dec 2020 and was started by Shane Linder https://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=49685&p=328778#p328778