Leaderboard

The snails... and shrimp have taken absolutely no interest in the sweet potato and carrot I put in earlier, haha. Looks like I'll be diving in and removing manually, this'll take some time.

Using tea to add tannins and reduce pH is not new. All sorts of tea leaves can be used. I have personally tried and used Green tea leaves, Jasmine tea leaves and Rooibos. And yes they work, very effectively. I suggest Rooibos, as that is supposed to have no caffeine. Black tea is much higher in caffeine content than the tea leaves I listed above. Just boil it, let it cool and add into the tank. It's not for everyone, as Simon indicated. It turns the water a ... tea colour. ? ? But I used it to recreate an Amazonian biotope. That dark tea colour is perfect for dwarf cichlids, discus, angels, tetras, anything from South America. Apart from colour, there are natural anti bacterial properties due to the increased tannins as well. So it's good for the fish. You will need to keep adding new tea leaves if you want to keep maintaining a low pH however. Unless you do something about the water that is being added. If your water changes are with Hard water, it will be a constant battle to reduce pH.

i'm trying something and wondered if anybody else have tried it. I have seen from many fellow aquarium keepers that, to lower PH in your water, adding driftwood, leaves, etc. will reduce PH and the tannins in the wood and dried leaves will do the trick. So, I thought, black tea might do the same. I drink black tea and, since I have used teabags every time I have tea, why not try it in my higher-PH aquarium and see. I checked with simple strip and, indeed, the black tea I was drinking was more less acidic, below 6.8 PH. My well water for my aquarium (30 gallon) is about 7.2 PH. While it is fine for my fish and shrimp, I just wanted to experiment a bit. Seeing that black tea is safe to drink, it should be safe for fish tanks as well. I guess if you want quick result you could use a fresh new teabag but I thought that might be too strong. Anyways, just thought I put it out there and see. My result is, yes, it does reduce the PH but slowly. I am cautiously checking and see if my fish/shrimp will behave differently in lower PH.

My shrimp tank uses dried Indian almond for the food and grow biofilm, Indian almond leave also stabilize the water for the right condition right for shrimps.

The RO water has an almost 0 reading of TDS from the unit, just add that to the tank, I'll take some out later, have the RO unit running at the moment. Also going to go grab some sweet potato and cos lettuce later to try in the tank for snails.

That's an interesting experiment. It will obviously brown the water, and you need to be sure the tea is organically produced, and some bags have a staple for the chord so this can't be copper etc? Most people use RO water for shrimps that need a low PH and RO water has a low PH anyway. I will be interested to hear how you get on though! Simon

I have learned that unless you keep the level exactly the same that the TDS will fluctuate. Any evaporation is pure water leaving the minerals in the water which then increases the TDS of the water the lower the water level in the tank! With water changes this doesn't happen as the water you remove has TDS in it and the water you add has TDS in it? Simon

Here is a picture of what they have sent me! They sent me this photo and they looks to be a lovely mixture! I already have 2 red wine and a couple of blue steel shrimp and a red bolt - that I know about! I will take a photo or two of them at some point in the tank IF all goes well this time! Simon They're in the tank and all went well with that!

My first venture was keeping Amano's. They have pretty well been trouble free. 29 gallon long.