Re: Dead brown leaves tea and water chemistry! Newbie, pls help!

[Mike & Diane Wise <apistowise@bewellnet.com>]

Arthit,

Check your carbonate hardness (dKH) first. If they are high, you will have to
lower your hard water below 10ºdKH/180ppm before you will be successful in a
lowering the pH with organics from the leaves. Is the water where you collected
your leave acidic? If your dKH is low, then the leaves are not releasing tannic
& folic acids into the water. Try leaves from acid waters - or better try to
find a source of peat. It is used by some discus breeders and also used in
gardening. If you use garden peat, make certain that it contains no poisons
(fungicides, insecticides, etc.).

All apisto prefer soft acid water. Some can live in moderately hard & slightly
alkaline water, but they are often more susceptible to disease and will no
breed.

Mike Wise

Arthit Prasartkul wrote:

> Hi all,
> I've just got a trio of might-be A.agassizi 3 days ago. I'm preparing a
> suitable tank for them and a hope that they will breed in a near future.
> Since they love soft and acid water, I was told by Mike Wise on the list to
> boil dead brown leaves to acidify and soften my local water (pH=7.5 dGH=5).
> However, the water chemistry was not changed after I added the extract. I
> kept on adding it along with measuring the pH, but it doesn't seem to make
> any change! The water turned darkly brown and I could not see through! I am
> wondering if the dGH is too high for the treat of the extract, am I right?
> What should I do about this? Do the apistos actually like black water or
> acidic water? The water I treated seemed to be so-called 'black-water' but
> the pH stayed at 7.5!
>
> Do I misunderstand with something? I also wonder whether my test-kits, both
> pH and GH, are correct! Thank you very much in advance..  :-)
>
> Cheers,
> Arthit
>
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