We watched her putting her scape together at Aquashella. There's so much to learn from just watching these experts work. Having her help would be cool but we've watched you scaping on your own, you got this👍
I'm always adding some tannins to my Angelfish tank, just a tint, so plants can still grow, but fish get some benefits. When I set 40gallon, the fresh finger(?) wood was leaching tannins fast... I thought it's over after few days, went away for a weekend. When I returned, the water was purple with brown tint, almost black and half the plants melted away. Full water change, bacterial treatment and few more plants from other tanks fixed that. Again it depends on the wood, some don't leach tannins at all, but the heavy tropical woods usually do.
I LOVE wood in my tanks, but I do NOT like the tannins tinting the water, especially if it's dark. Unfortunately, they pretty much go hand-in-hand, at least during the early stages of a tank that's using new wood. Even pre-soaking and boiling won't stop it, in my experience. I've currently got 2 tanks that have tannins too heavy to suit me. The quickest and easiest way I've found to remove that is a good size water change.
I remember back in the day when I first wanted a South American dark water themed setup. I let the driftwood leach the tannin's in the tank. Once they stopped leaching I would regularly add Tetra Black Water Extract. When my parents seen the tank they asked me why it looked so "dirty". I had to explain to them about tannin's and the benefits. They just gave me a weird look and as they walked away I heard mom tell dad - "he must know what he's talking about because his fish are always doing fine". My dad added a new piece of driftwood and didn't like the tea colored water. I told him frequent water changes and it would eventually go away. Well he wasn't a fan of doing "extra" water changes so I added activated carbon to his filter which helped speed it up. Lisa, to bad you don't have magnolia leaves available on your website. I would love to try some small sized leaves. I'm always breaking up oak leaves to add to my 40G breeder because full size leaves just look to big in the tank with small fish. But they just don't look nice and natural being little broken bits. 😒
Only times my water has been dark-ish has been when I've been too lazy. Funnily enough when I got ill and had to go stay with my boyfriend for 7 months and counting (and obviously couldn't bring the fish tank, though I did bring my cat and the litter box) I got a friend to collect all my fish and rehome them. Better to do that than just let them die from neglect, right? And... Well, last time I stopped by my apartment to check the mail there were a few cherry shrimp and a whole group of assassin snails (HOW? I only ever bought one! It should not have been able to breed...) living happily in an aquarium with the filter pump switched off and no lights - and glass-clear water... Sure, the plants have grown a bit out of control, but apparently the few little critters that my friend missed when he thought he'd caught them all can live on whatever algae growth there is and keep it down. Eco system tank? I do plan on rehoming the remaining critters, though. 5 cherry shrimps and a handful of assassin snails would be a great beginner set-up for a small kid, and I'm not there to care for them or enjoy them. So plants... Lots of plants if you want clear water!
The river where I live is a black water river. I have swam in it, and I'm sure drank a bunch of the water. lol I have a piece of driftwood in my 70 gallon that's about 2yrs old, and it still makes the water a little yellowish. I used to worry about this, until I found out tannin softens the water (I have super hard well water). Oh and also, I am so glad to learn I can put magnolia leaves in the tank! I have two trees in my yard, and I was wondering about that. I have an empty 20 gallon that I was thinking about making dark water.
Your helpers are the best! I've really been loving the darkwater look in my tanks. I add oak leaves from our yard to it. This is a great reminder to store some up before winter ;)
Great info. Not a fan of dark water myself. I soak and boil to minimize the impact. The cats make sure you have help and supervision. Collaborations with others is great. You can find good info and be introduced to other RUclipsrs.
Yay for Blackwater tanks getting the love they deserve ❤ this was a fantastic video with so much great info, you are such an awesome resource! Can I say I’m beyond excited about the possibility of working together on a future scape 😍😍. Thank you for the shoutout!!
Definitely a joint scaping project with Melanie for your discus would make for an incredible video. Maybe break it into parts. Great video thank you for sharing with us.
I’m 100% into having natural material in my tanks. My shrimp eat the leaves down to nothing. But, I’ve never had “dark water,” meaning a murky tank. Because I have live plants, too? IDK. Love the kitty bombs! Keep them coming!
One of my favorite tanks at Aquashella Chicago was the dark water tank that had the dwarf gouramis. Stunning! My large pieces of drift wood that don't fit in my kitchen pots just soaked for a LONG time in a plastic tote with several water changes. Oh, your kitties are telling you: "mom, don't you know that what's mini is mine and what's yours is mine now let me play with that water and all those leaves and scratch that big chunk of wood...meow:))🐈⬛
Great info! I’ve noticed that sometimes even the presoaked wood still leaches tannins. Poly fill in a hang on back filter can help remove it. I love the look with certain scapes and fish like neon tetras! Especially with all those leaves!! 👍🏻🍂
I love dark water so I plopped my mopani wood right into my two 55s after soaking them for a few hours so they would sink, it's so gorgeous! I actually dread doing water changes because it dilutes the effect, so I started adding handfuls of small catappa leaves after each water change to get it darker again. I also found that my carbon filters and my filter floss catches a lot of the tannins too, so that's another way to potentially pull them out. I have a lot of maple and sassafras leaves on my property from the 17 trees in my backyard that I could use... how do you know if they're aquarium safe? I see mixed opinions online and it's hard to get a straight answer =/
Thanks for the vid it was really helpful for my knowledge. I have been a viewer for years and recently got a account and gave a well deserved subscribe. Thanks Lisa and John
Guilty as charged. The eucalyptus root you picked out for me went straight into the aquarium. I stuffed rocks inside the hollow to hold it down, and yep... tea water. I don't dislike it, but the clarity difference before and after a water change is striking.
Ummm heck ya it would be a great idea..I love a dark water tank...but tips on how to keep it that way...eventually my wood doesn't leach as much...so that would be cool to know
My most recent aquarium nightmare I bought some blue/white sand. Rinsed it so many times to many times. Well the tank stayed cloudy. At the same time the tank filter was going on the blink off and on. I removed that particular sand I'll never use it again in any fish tank I have. As far as the filter pump went that had to be replaced. There was no getting around this one. Lost two black bullhead catfish welcome to the tank nightmares.........
"Don't boil your plastic plants." 🤣Sadly, you're right to warn people. Unfortunately, there ARE people who do that sort of thing. Still, it made me laugh. HARD.
Everything was 💯 spot on. One thing I would like to add is that tannins can alter your ph depending on how much is added. I put a nature box in my bettas fluval flex. He loves the stuff. I would love to see an aquascape collab of you and Melanie. I always look forward to new videos
I know there is some dramatization in the intro but thats laterally how a betta fish likes its water to look many fish do actually love tanins in their water as it naturally dims the light and provides a ton of health benefits to their slime coats. fish like ottos bettas and corys really do appreciate some darker water
I've used all kinds of flake good. One brand turned the water red. Another turned the water green. These were cheap. I use a lot so cheap seemed good. I should, and have, stayed with Tetramin. It's the best. For 50 years, in my case.
I invest alot of time and money to make my aquarium water dark 😂 It is meant to be a blackwater tank but it keeps clearing up! I have a bristlenose pleco that keeps eating the leaves and despite an ABUNDANCE of wood, pinecones etc - it still doesn't stain 😂 My next step is to use tea for it, but I was really hoping it would've turned dark naturally 🤔
I just watched a video yesterday wherein he was having the same problem as you - he added tannins galore, and they cleared up. He wondered if it was the kitty litter he includes in his substrate but hadn't figured out for sure. I hope he figures it out. I'm NOT a dark water fan, so I'd love to know how to keep that tint out of my water. I'm having the opposite problem of you and him. LOL
@@dawnt6791 I only have aquasoil, fine sand and lots of gravel and rocks for substrate no kittylitter 🤗 But I will just keep dumping leaves inthere and supplement with tea. Even if the leaves get eaten by my bristlebuddy atleast it saves on the regular fishfood 🤣
You didn't mention using purigen in the filter to get rid of them. Personally I love tannins, I use almond leaves and I'm happy knowing my fish are better because of it.
This was an amazing video, though I still don't know why my aquarium water is brown(ish) when I don't have any tannins in it. I do waterchanges, clean my filter, but a few weeks later it's yellowish brown again... Water patameters are good, the fish are well - I just do not like it.
love dark water tanks, my wild type discus live in pretty dark water, my apistos,rams and killies all have a combination of seed pods, indian almond leaves, mulberry leaves and wood in them
I use the Indian almond leaves for bettas, should I just use the magnolia leaves from my back yard? What is the health difference? Also, do you keep additional fish in the betta sororities, or betta only?
I think mixing the Indian almond leaves and magnolia would be nice. Then you save a little money by using half and half. Make sure to soak or clean the magnolia leaves to get bugs and dirt off. I keep several tetras in my sorority, along with Amano shrimp, nerite snails, mystery snails and ramshorn snails.
I boil my botanicals to be able to sink them right away and to be able to place them exactly where I want them in my scape and to release that initial burst of tannins ( trust me there is plenty left lol ) and to remove any impurities.
I have a 150 gal I would love to have dark water. It was at one point and has now washed out. I'm looking into y'all's dark water kits to fix it, hope one of them works.
Hi Lisa, Hi, John! I clean my tanks periodically and faithfully; I change the water and clean the filters. In this particular tank I have a Fluval 207 and a filter sponge. However, it drives me bananas that the water never looks crystal clear. The tank is a 30-gallon cube. It looks cloudy. I tried various chemicals to make the water clear to no avail. What am I doing wrong, please advise. My substrate is gravel.
Hey I bought Corydoras and anglefish together and then I added serpae tetras not knowing the nipp and now there chasing and nipping all th other fish. 36 gal with 2 anglefish 3 Corydoras and 4 tetras and live plants. What do I do?
I soak them for a day in room temperature water. This gets the dirt off and also helps the leaves to lay on the substrate easier and not float after scaping.
Why does my water turn brown after i cuange the water, the water was clear before i did a water change, this jever use to happen now it happens every water change
*Check out our website and shop LIVE BETTAS and all of your aquarium supplies* keepfishkeeping.com
We watched her putting her scape together at Aquashella. There's so much to learn from just watching these experts work. Having her help would be cool but we've watched you scaping on your own, you got this👍
I'm always adding some tannins to my Angelfish tank, just a tint, so plants can still grow, but fish get some benefits. When I set 40gallon, the fresh finger(?) wood was leaching tannins fast... I thought it's over after few days, went away for a weekend. When I returned, the water was purple with brown tint, almost black and half the plants melted away. Full water change, bacterial treatment and few more plants from other tanks fixed that.
Again it depends on the wood, some don't leach tannins at all, but the heavy tropical woods usually do.
Hahaha. The cat cut scene drinking the water and pawing is hilarious! Nice humor and add on!
I LOVE wood in my tanks, but I do NOT like the tannins tinting the water, especially if it's dark. Unfortunately, they pretty much go hand-in-hand, at least during the early stages of a tank that's using new wood. Even pre-soaking and boiling won't stop it, in my experience. I've currently got 2 tanks that have tannins too heavy to suit me. The quickest and easiest way I've found to remove that is a good size water change.
I remember back in the day when I first wanted a South American dark water themed setup. I let the driftwood leach the tannin's in the tank. Once they stopped leaching I would regularly add Tetra Black Water Extract. When my parents seen the tank they asked me why it looked so "dirty". I had to explain to them about tannin's and the benefits. They just gave me a weird look and as they walked away I heard mom tell dad - "he must know what he's talking about because his fish are always doing fine".
My dad added a new piece of driftwood and didn't like the tea colored water. I told him frequent water changes and it would eventually go away. Well he wasn't a fan of doing "extra" water changes so I added activated carbon to his filter which helped speed it up.
Lisa, to bad you don't have magnolia leaves available on your website. I would love to try some small sized leaves. I'm always breaking up oak leaves to add to my 40G breeder because full size leaves just look to big in the tank with small fish. But they just don't look nice and natural being little broken bits. 😒
Only times my water has been dark-ish has been when I've been too lazy. Funnily enough when I got ill and had to go stay with my boyfriend for 7 months and counting (and obviously couldn't bring the fish tank, though I did bring my cat and the litter box) I got a friend to collect all my fish and rehome them. Better to do that than just let them die from neglect, right?
And... Well, last time I stopped by my apartment to check the mail there were a few cherry shrimp and a whole group of assassin snails (HOW? I only ever bought one! It should not have been able to breed...) living happily in an aquarium with the filter pump switched off and no lights - and glass-clear water...
Sure, the plants have grown a bit out of control, but apparently the few little critters that my friend missed when he thought he'd caught them all can live on whatever algae growth there is and keep it down. Eco system tank? I do plan on rehoming the remaining critters, though. 5 cherry shrimps and a handful of assassin snails would be a great beginner set-up for a small kid, and I'm not there to care for them or enjoy them.
So plants... Lots of plants if you want clear water!
The river where I live is a black water river. I have swam in it, and I'm sure drank a bunch of the water. lol I have a piece of driftwood in my 70 gallon that's about 2yrs old, and it still makes the water a little yellowish. I used to worry about this, until I found out tannin softens the water (I have super hard well water). Oh and also, I am so glad to learn I can put magnolia leaves in the tank! I have two trees in my yard, and I was wondering about that. I have an empty 20 gallon that I was thinking about making dark water.
I video with that lady doing a natural aquascape would be awesome. Thanks for the videos.
Your helpers are the best! I've really been loving the darkwater look in my tanks. I add oak leaves from our yard to it. This is a great reminder to store some up before winter ;)
Great info. Not a fan of dark water myself. I soak and boil to minimize the impact.
The cats make sure you have help and supervision.
Collaborations with others is great. You can find good info and be introduced to other RUclipsrs.
Yay for Blackwater tanks getting the love they deserve ❤ this was a fantastic video with so much great info, you are such an awesome resource! Can I say I’m beyond excited about the possibility of working together on a future scape 😍😍. Thank you for the shoutout!!
You deserve it and I'm so excited too 😊
@@KGTropicals 🥰
Definitely a joint scaping project with Melanie for your discus would make for an incredible video. Maybe break it into parts. Great video thank you for sharing with us.
❤
Would be amazing to see yoy work with her to do an aquascaping 💖
LOVE how you and John ALWAYS bring in baby kitty!!! SOOO CUTEEEEE!!!!
I’m 100% into having natural material in my tanks. My shrimp eat the leaves down to nothing. But, I’ve never had “dark water,” meaning a murky tank. Because I have live plants, too? IDK. Love the kitty bombs! Keep them coming!
Great video! Carl is so funny, always trying to steal the show! I love your discus tank, the perfect amount of tannins!
Thank you Regina 😊
One of my favorite tanks at Aquashella Chicago was the dark water tank that had the dwarf gouramis. Stunning!
My large pieces of drift wood that don't fit in my kitchen pots just soaked for a LONG time in a plastic tote with several water changes.
Oh, your kitties are telling you: "mom, don't you know that what's mini is mine and what's yours is mine now let me play with that water and all those leaves and scratch that big chunk of wood...meow:))🐈⬛
Great info! I’ve noticed that sometimes even the presoaked wood still leaches tannins. Poly fill in a hang on back filter can help remove it. I love the look with certain scapes and fish like neon tetras! Especially with all those leaves!! 👍🏻🍂
So ADORABLE,😊 when she says everything you want all in a bottle!!!!
I love dark water so I plopped my mopani wood right into my two 55s after soaking them for a few hours so they would sink, it's so gorgeous! I actually dread doing water changes because it dilutes the effect, so I started adding handfuls of small catappa leaves after each water change to get it darker again. I also found that my carbon filters and my filter floss catches a lot of the tannins too, so that's another way to potentially pull them out.
I have a lot of maple and sassafras leaves on my property from the 17 trees in my backyard that I could use... how do you know if they're aquarium safe? I see mixed opinions online and it's hard to get a straight answer =/
Thanks for the vid it was really helpful for my knowledge. I have been a viewer for years and recently got a account and gave a well deserved subscribe. Thanks Lisa and John
I think that it would be interesting to watch you set up a dark water tank
Guilty as charged. The eucalyptus root you picked out for me went straight into the aquarium. I stuffed rocks inside the hollow to hold it down, and yep... tea water. I don't dislike it, but the clarity difference before and after a water change is striking.
Ummm heck ya it would be a great idea..I love a dark water tank...but tips on how to keep it that way...eventually my wood doesn't leach as much...so that would be cool to know
My most recent aquarium nightmare I bought some blue/white sand. Rinsed it so many times to many times. Well the tank stayed cloudy. At the same time the tank filter was going on the blink off and on. I removed that particular sand I'll never use it again in any fish tank I have. As far as the filter pump went that had to be replaced. There was no getting around this one. Lost two black bullhead catfish welcome to the tank nightmares.........
"Don't boil your plastic plants." 🤣Sadly, you're right to warn people. Unfortunately, there ARE people who do that sort of thing. Still, it made me laugh. HARD.
Everything was 💯 spot on. One thing I would like to add is that tannins can alter your ph depending on how much is added. I put a nature box in my bettas fluval flex. He loves the stuff. I would love to see an aquascape collab of you and Melanie. I always look forward to new videos
I added soil to my tank so I can add plants after doing a water change. Now my tank is completely dark. Is this normal? Should I take out the soil?
I know there is some dramatization in the intro but thats laterally how a betta fish likes its water to look many fish do actually love tanins in their water as it naturally dims the light and provides a ton of health benefits to their slime coats. fish like ottos bettas and corys really do appreciate some darker water
Who tells Carl he can't do something? 🤣 Thanks for the great video.
The cats find you very entertaining ☺️
in my case , its the FLAKE FISH FOOD.. their are no non staining flake food.. and yes i am using NORTHFIN... Box filters are needed with polyfill
I've used all kinds of flake good. One brand turned the water red. Another turned the water green.
These were cheap. I use a lot so cheap seemed good.
I should, and have, stayed with Tetramin. It's the best. For 50 years, in my case.
If you pre soak leaves and driftwood to get rid of most of the tanins would you still get the benefits of using them in your aquarium after?
I invest alot of time and money to make my aquarium water dark 😂 It is meant to be a blackwater tank but it keeps clearing up! I have a bristlenose pleco that keeps eating the leaves and despite an ABUNDANCE of wood, pinecones etc - it still doesn't stain 😂
My next step is to use tea for it, but I was really hoping it would've turned dark naturally 🤔
I just watched a video yesterday wherein he was having the same problem as you - he added tannins galore, and they cleared up. He wondered if it was the kitty litter he includes in his substrate but hadn't figured out for sure. I hope he figures it out. I'm NOT a dark water fan, so I'd love to know how to keep that tint out of my water. I'm having the opposite problem of you and him. LOL
@@dawnt6791 I only have aquasoil, fine sand and lots of gravel and rocks for substrate no kittylitter 🤗 But I will just keep dumping leaves inthere and supplement with tea. Even if the leaves get eaten by my bristlebuddy atleast it saves on the regular fishfood 🤣
I just started using Rooibos Tea in my aquarium. A box of tea bags was under $4 at Wally World
You didn't mention using purigen in the filter to get rid of them. Personally I love tannins, I use almond leaves and I'm happy knowing my fish are better because of it.
This was an amazing video, though I still don't know why my aquarium water is brown(ish) when I don't have any tannins in it. I do waterchanges, clean my filter, but a few weeks later it's yellowish brown again... Water patameters are good, the fish are well - I just do not like it.
Great info lisa thankyou,and of course karl lol
I love darkwater.
I prefer my aquariums to be as close to natural conditions as possible and will go to great lengths to facilitate that.
love dark water tanks, my wild type discus live in pretty dark water,
my apistos,rams and killies all have a combination of seed pods, indian almond leaves, mulberry leaves and wood in them
Awesome video Lisa !😊
Great video! Thanks!
Love your videos Lisa!! You’re fun to watch and I always learn something new! Thank you for doing what you do! ♥️
I use the Indian almond leaves for bettas, should I just use the magnolia leaves from my back yard? What is the health difference? Also, do you keep additional fish in the betta sororities, or betta only?
I think mixing the Indian almond leaves and magnolia would be nice. Then you save a little money by using half and half. Make sure to soak or clean the magnolia leaves to get bugs and dirt off. I keep several tetras in my sorority, along with Amano shrimp, nerite snails, mystery snails and ramshorn snails.
@@KGTropicals Do you think the extra fish keep them from picking fights?
Also, how do you feed the multiple betta containers?
Hey! I’ve been watching you guys for a few months now and was wondering if I could put two or three female bettas in a planted 10 gallon tank? Thanks!
Hi Lisa. You are doing a great job on the videos you are explaining the subject very well. John better watch out because you are closing on him.😊
Great info and done with such humor. Thanks Lisa!!
Lisa why do you soak the leaves prior if you are shooting for dark water?
Mainly to make sure nothing from the environment could hurt the fish. Just to be on the safe side 🙂
I boil my botanicals to be able to sink them right away and to be able to place them exactly where I want them in my scape and to release that initial burst of tannins ( trust me there is plenty left lol ) and to remove any impurities.
I have a 150 gal I would love to have dark water. It was at one point and has now washed out. I'm looking into y'all's dark water kits to fix it, hope one of them works.
Our cat chose me too and my wife constantly gets jealous and tries to remind her who feeds her. The cat made her choice.
Very informative video 👍 thank you 😊
Love the tint from my catappa leaves for my betta!
I like black water tanks
Can not properly locking soil down also cause the water to turn brown?
yes bring her and do the new discus tank
Just an fyi, don't accept Carolina sweet tea, from a betta keeper, on the first of April.
Lol
Love the cat helpers
I love how involved the cats have been in the past couple of videos from y'all.
Hahaha, your cat just taste your driftwood. Nearly threw up...cute,😂
How many of us would be thinking: will that beautiful piece of wood be for sale? And at that moment you say: it's not for sale...😪😪
Can this happen when putting terracotta pots in aquarium
Hi Lisa, Hi, John! I clean my tanks periodically and faithfully; I change the water and clean the filters. In this particular tank I have a Fluval 207 and a filter sponge. However, it drives me bananas that the water never looks crystal clear. The tank is a 30-gallon cube. It looks cloudy. I tried various chemicals to make the water clear to no avail. What am I doing wrong, please advise. My substrate is gravel.
i have a drift log in my 60 galllon but one end of the log keeps floating. Is there a way to keep it not floating
Thanks so much for all you do! Love the content!
When the leaves break down, do they not throw parameters off???? Cuz I got leaves!
Hey I bought Corydoras and anglefish together and then I added serpae tetras not knowing the nipp and now there chasing and nipping all th other fish. 36 gal with 2 anglefish 3 Corydoras and 4 tetras and live plants. What do I do?
I do not have another tank currently and I can't return them
Great Video!
Sometimes I ask the same question about our toilet bowl water.
Do you boil your leaves too?
I soak them for a day in room temperature water. This gets the dirt off and also helps the leaves to lay on the substrate easier and not float after scaping.
Great idea for a video
The only water problem I've never had.
I love my beta tea! And so does he!
But I don't have driftwood! Can someone please help
🔥 awesome information 🔥
People say that my betta tank water is dirty, let me use some catappa to show 'em
Chaos Carl strikes again!
My aquarium is a shade of dark put in a glass and it is clear i clean and it is a shade lighter but dark
Collab collab please pleeeease!!!!!!
If I never watch the last show I'll always have one more live stream to watch # no more replay squad :(
Why does my water turn brown after i cuange the water, the water was clear before i did a water change, this jever use to happen now it happens every water change
Awwww the cat co Star
BET YOU DON'T SEE THIS COMMENT. If you do, say hi! Love your channel!
Awesome
I came for the cats. 😘
Too late, just cleaned out the water and got rid of the tanning water😅
Season s ❤️ greetings
2:48 look that cat ))))))))
I love my dark water
I use mulberry leaves to make my own tannins
I love the cats 🤣😂 ok drink it
👍😎
Why you don't let your cat go out side?
🫶⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️🫶
I boil my fish before I introduce them to the aquarium. They keep dying! Please help! What am I doing wrong?
I boiled my fish before I put them in the tank now they don't swim. They smell amazing tho
Boil plastic plants 🤣😂🤣😂🤣
#carlwasframed #carlswater #babykittycameraready
😉 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐦