Leaves for blackwater aquarium

[JimmyTheFish]

Hi everyone,

I done some reading and seen that one can use oak leaves in a blackwater biotope. Being summer here in Australia I'm not gonna find any dried leaves on the ground. I have picked some green ones and I have them in a drying oven at 60 degrees Celsius. Just wondering how long I need to dry them out for before I can start adding them to my aquarium?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[samurai.cichlid]

i might be wrong, but i believe you ideally want the tree to "shed" the leaves naturally. that way before shedding the leaf it absorbs all the junk from it--sap, other tree-ish juices, etc--because you don't want that stuff in your tank you see.

i'm new to apistos so i might be wrong, but that was my understanding.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

i might be wrong, but i believe you ideally want the tree to "shed" the leaves naturally. that way before shedding the leaf it absorbs all the junk from it--sap, other tree-ish juices, etc--because you don't want that stuff in your tank you see.

That is right, when the tree sheds a leaf it withdraws the proteins and sugars from it first. If you pick a green leaf, and dry it, then the sugars and proteins are still present.

You don't have to use Oak leaves, any dead leaves from Camellia, Banksia, Magnolia grandiflora, Psidium & Eriobotrya leaves are suitable. I probably wouldn't use Ficus, Rhododendron, Eucalyptus or Acacia leaves.

cheers Darrel