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

[Arthit Prasartkul <arthitp@ksc.th.com>]

Mike,
>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?

Well, the leaves I used are widely used by Thai traditional betta keepers.
Bettas are kept in this leaves water, so I concluded that it should make
acidic water. I don't know about my KH value yet, I'll have to go get the
test-kit today. When you speak out of the term "hard v. soft water', what
is it refer too? (I thought it was GH and that's why I only get the GH test!)

 >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.).

I boiled the leaves and I could see the water turned brownish. Does this
transition mean that tannic and folic acids are being released? I did a
huge waterchange yesterday morning just because water was too brown to see
through. 

>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.

How can I soften the water? Should I use the chemical products? I saw
Tetra's pH/kH minus
yesterday at my LFS. Is it advisible to go for it?

Thank you very much again,
Arthit






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