Re: blackwater

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

Vern,

Welcome to the list. Since I haven't seen anyone else answer your message, I'll
give it a shot.

Vern Wensley wrote:

> For what spieces should you use blackwater?

This depends your source of water. If you live where the water is naturally hard
and alkaline (most of the northern hemisphere) then making blackwater is an
absolute necessity if you want to breed black water fish.

> I have noticed that some people dont use it at all.

I live in Denver, Colorado. We get our water from reservoirs in the Rocky
Mountains. This is mostly winter snow melt. These reservoirs rest on mostly inert
igneous and metamorphic rock so our tap water is fairly soft (dGH~2º, dKH~1º).
The water department artificially raises the pH to 7.5 so that the lines don't
corrode from the naturally acidic water. Whatever it is that they use it is
temporary because the pH of the water drops to about 6.5 overnight. In tanks that
are well established the pH stabilizes around 5.8. Because of this I have
successfully bred many black water species - including A. bitaeniata, A.
hippolytae, A. iniridae, and A. nijsseni - in straight aged Denver tap water.

> Would it be fine to use it on clear water spieces?

Yes, as long as you don't let the pH drop below 5. Clear water isn't much harder
than black water. Both are very soft. Clear water streams just don't have all of
the tannins and humic acids associated with black water. These cause the pH to
drop very low and give blackwater its tea color.

> I was thinking of putting peat in nylons in the out flow
> of my filters and was wondering if it would be ok for all or should I
> research localities and just use it for black water
> spieces,re-bitaeniata?

I'm not well versed on this since I don't have the problem. I have used peat in
power filters for  bare tanks used to quarantine blackwater fish and it seems to
help them overcome the stress of shipping better. Others on the list don't
recommend adding peat directly to tank. Instead, they recommend conditioning the
water in drums before adding it to the tank.

Hope this helps,

Mike Wise

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