Black water setup ?
- Thread starter richyrich
- Start date
It depends on the fish you want to keep, and how much you want to constantly monitor and fiddle with water parameters.
Whether you want an automated system with reactors with probes that adjust to your tanks water, or whether you want to manually add acids, and brew black tannic waters to use during water changes, using peat, by collecting leaf litter and soaking it, or use commercial black water extracts..
What fish do you want to keep? Amazonian wild caught cardinals, wild caught angels, certain acaras, Uaru, or black/acidic loving dwarfs? Many of these species black water species that prefer tannins, also prefer low pH ranges in the 5-6 range. But its not just about pH, other water parameters such as hardness, and conductivity may also be important health factors
Above is some collection point data from where Heros severus, and the Amazon basin black water species are found.
My tanks are outside and influenced by the seasons, so they get tons of tannins from surrounding vegetation early in the rainy season (and gradually pH falls as tannins build), but slowly climbs to a norm of of 8.2 as the dry season approaches. The rains also effect conductivity and Hardness diluting them.
Below, Tank with lots of tannins, soon after the beginning of the rains.
Below, later in the season as Tannic acids are gradually neutralized with water changes, and less leeching from vegetation into the tank.
Crushed coral not only buffers pH, but helps eliminate the tannins, although its effects are not really drastic.
The substrate in my tanks is mostly coral, and sea shell based sand.
Blackwater from my tank in a clear plastic bottle
and some more catch location data from black water in Brazil, this time for Cichhla monoculus.
Whether you want an automated system with reactors with probes that adjust to your tanks water, or whether you want to manually add acids, and brew black tannic waters to use during water changes, using peat, by collecting leaf litter and soaking it, or use commercial black water extracts..
What fish do you want to keep? Amazonian wild caught cardinals, wild caught angels, certain acaras, Uaru, or black/acidic loving dwarfs? Many of these species black water species that prefer tannins, also prefer low pH ranges in the 5-6 range. But its not just about pH, other water parameters such as hardness, and conductivity may also be important health factors
Above is some collection point data from where Heros severus, and the Amazon basin black water species are found.
My tanks are outside and influenced by the seasons, so they get tons of tannins from surrounding vegetation early in the rainy season (and gradually pH falls as tannins build), but slowly climbs to a norm of of 8.2 as the dry season approaches. The rains also effect conductivity and Hardness diluting them.
Below, Tank with lots of tannins, soon after the beginning of the rains.
Below, later in the season as Tannic acids are gradually neutralized with water changes, and less leeching from vegetation into the tank.
Crushed coral not only buffers pH, but helps eliminate the tannins, although its effects are not really drastic.
The substrate in my tanks is mostly coral, and sea shell based sand.
Blackwater from my tank in a clear plastic bottle
and some more catch location data from black water in Brazil, this time for Cichhla monoculus.
Thanks
duanes
, well I can’t say for definite what fish I intend keeping yet as this is just something I’m only thinking about doing, il maybe try it with discus or something I have at the moment but it will definitely be SA fish. Don’t intend on doing it anytime soon either.
I was just curious if it could work as on my other systems I use abit of crushed coral in my sumps to add a slight buffer.
Would it be any point in using this if I was doing black water?
I have had a system crash in the past because I had no buffer in there, a big bio load and changed things in my sump. I suspect this wiped out my beneficial bacteria.
I’ve read that some BB dies at a certain acidic ph which explains what happens in a crash but also read that different bacteria grows in a black water system that is more tolerant in acidic water , is this true.
I wouldn’t mind boiling leaves, putting some in the tank and sumps or using liquid tannins.
duanes
, well I can’t say for definite what fish I intend keeping yet as this is just something I’m only thinking about doing, il maybe try it with discus or something I have at the moment but it will definitely be SA fish. Don’t intend on doing it anytime soon either.I was just curious if it could work as on my other systems I use abit of crushed coral in my sumps to add a slight buffer.
Would it be any point in using this if I was doing black water?
I have had a system crash in the past because I had no buffer in there, a big bio load and changed things in my sump. I suspect this wiped out my beneficial bacteria.
I’ve read that some BB dies at a certain acidic ph which explains what happens in a crash but also read that different bacteria grows in a black water system that is more tolerant in acidic water , is this true.
I wouldn’t mind boiling leaves, putting some in the tank and sumps or using liquid tannins.
There are beneficial bacteria evolved to live in all types (pH, conductivity) water.
Its all about stability, so if water changes, filtration and stocking are properly set up, and tank size are enough to handle bioload pH, shouldn't crash in a low pH tank, but it may be more sensitive to any lapses.
When I lived in Wisconsin to get tannins, I had to collect bags of leaf litter every fall, soak it a little at a time in rain barrels, and then add the resultant tea, with every water change, I also scattered leaves on the substrate of many tanks.
I did boil some at first, but after a while found, boiling wasn't needed.
I never used pesticides or anything like that in my yard, where I collected leaves.
I would bet using bags of peat in the overflows of filters, or hanging in sumps, would also work, and be a lot less time consuming.
Its all about stability, so if water changes, filtration and stocking are properly set up, and tank size are enough to handle bioload pH, shouldn't crash in a low pH tank, but it may be more sensitive to any lapses.
When I lived in Wisconsin to get tannins, I had to collect bags of leaf litter every fall, soak it a little at a time in rain barrels, and then add the resultant tea, with every water change, I also scattered leaves on the substrate of many tanks.
I did boil some at first, but after a while found, boiling wasn't needed.
I never used pesticides or anything like that in my yard, where I collected leaves.
I would bet using bags of peat in the overflows of filters, or hanging in sumps, would also work, and be a lot less time consuming.