Rooibos tea/Redbush tea in a fish tank

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Coryloach

Potamotrygon
MFK Member
Apr 22, 2015
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Has anyone put rooibos tea, also known as redbush tea in their fish tanks?

It gives the water a nice yellow tint due to the tannins and also lowers the Kh a bit if you put too much but the fish seem to enjoy it a lot.
I don't particularly own black water fish exactly because of my hard water I have clown loaches and kuhli loaches and the tea stained water or whatever properties it gives to the water makes them very outgoing and active.
I dosed all my tanks, including the ones with clear water fish and they all seem to enjoy it. My water is hard so lowering the Kh a bit doesn't swing my ph at all.

I've read various claims about it, including being used to raise some rare poisonous frog species that are otherwise very susceptible to diseases in their early life.

I used to tint the water in my tanks with tea last summer, then I ran out of tea and stopped out of laziness but I started again recently and I am seeing the same nice increased activity by the fish as before. It's a sort of an antioxidant for humans and possibly fish but I'd be interested if anyone has used it long term and has noticed any definite benefits?
 
Ok, Thanks. I see you are using peat moss and almond tea? How does that play with your stats?

I don't want to make the water acidic as I do large water changes via a python and that can stress the fish each week. It's impossible for me to prepare the water prior.

The rooibos tea lowers the Kh just a bit, from 8 to 6 dGh and doesn't seem to go any lower than that despite me doubling the dose in a couple of days so it seems it's not affecting the stats any further if my liquid test is reliable at all. The ph doesn't move at all. I noticed that last year as I played testing my water when dosed with tea.
 
The peat and Almond leaf definitely lowers the Ph which is what I'm after and slightly softens the water. My water is kind of soft anyway. I do about 50 to 75% a week water changes and add the tea as the tank fills you could prepare the water ahead of time too if you wanted to. I add about a cup and a half to a 90 gallon tank during water changes and have a box filter filled with Almond leaves I change out about once a month once I see them breaking down. It's not exact but keeps everything pretty close with no big swings in Ph or hardness.
 
Cheers.
Last summer I normally just chucked the tea bags straight after a water change. They leach all the tannins within hours if not less time so I think it I didn't swing the stats by much at water changes. And I didn't see any negative effects, on the contrary.
So I'll going to be more persistent this time and see how it goes long term.
My clown loaches are loving it right now. They refuse to go back to their caves :)
 
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