Adding leaves to the tank

[terrenlai]

Hi there!

I have a planted tank of 45*45*45(cm) , this should be about 24 gallons. Soil, drift wood and live plants, using canister filter, no compressed co2. I do about 1/2 water change every 1-2 weeks. The tank is almost 2 years old and pretty stable so far, plants and fishes all look pretty happy. However I have never tested the water parameters. I have never tried adding leaves in the tank to utilize the tannings and was wondering if I should.

2 months ago I added 4 elizabethae fry, they were 2cm at the time, they are about 4cm now.

I browsed the forum and noticed most apisto keepers use almond leaves or oak leaves. I picked up some "Bischofia javanica" leaves today and was wondering if they can be added to my tank? if they are the right leaves, are they dry enough to be added? Here is a picture of the leaves:

There are also "terminalia mantalyi" which i can try picking up near where I live, I think those are Madagascar Almond? are those better for my tank?

Sorry for so many newbie questions!

 

[slimbolen99]

Hi terrenlai - welcome to the forum. Only problem I see with adding leaves, in your setup, is that they will settle over the existing plants and block out light / collect algae. I am not familiar with that type of leaf, so I can't answer your question regarding that. If it were me, I would triple or quadruple the amount of plants I had in that tank instead of adding leaves.

 

[terrenlai]

Hi slimbolen, thank you , I like your point of adding plants. Maybe I'll do just that !

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Terminalia mantaly should be fine. I would expect the leaves to be fairly resistant to decay and have the same properties as T. catappa. Bischofia javanica won't be toxic, but I'm not sure whether the leaves will produce tannins or last very long. I'd probably up the water changes, I do 10% a day, but you could just do 50% a week.

If it were me, I would triple or quadruple the amount of plants I had in that tank instead of adding leaves.

Agreed, you could add more plants and cover, I use a lot of bits of dead wood and plant them with moss and Java fern to create really complex tangles of moss. Like the bit you've got, but on its side. If you want to add the leaves just put them where there aren't any plants.

Have a look a these images to show what I mean. It is the same tank about 6 months apart.

Unfortunately subsequently managed to kill the cichlids, Details here: <http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/index.php?threads/1st-d-maculatus-spawn.12389/>.

cheers Darrel

 

[terrenlai]

Thank you DW, I guess I'll leave the leaves alone. I also love your jungle! thanks for sharing~

I was hoping to wait for those Cryptocoryne to grow but I don't think my soil has enough nutrients. I think I'll just tie some java fern to small pieces of wood and cover up the place to create more hiding space.

Cheers