[Local Leaf Litter Use/Experience]

9 hours ago, fatblonde said:

That is a local collection? It looks really pretty 

Thanks, yeah all local collection.  The Magnolia tree is an ornamental that I was able to get access to, the rest are all common to our area.

[Local Leaf Litter Use/Experience]

On 10/4/2020 at 4:01 PM, Nick K said:

This is the only place I would ask this,  What leaf litter have you used and what was your experience? We live in northern michigan and have a "burning bush", ive dried some  of the red leaves and dropped them in today.  

We’re from Northern Michigan too.  Beech is a good easy to find option.

Besides Beech, so far we’ve collected and used Magnolia (my favorite), Walnut and Mulberry.  Our shrimp devoured the Mulberry once if softened up a bit.  
 

I usually boil for ~10 min.  They can take a day or so to sink.
 

The leaves get a nice biofilm that is grazed on by our snails, shrimp, guppies and ricefish.  We also use them to make a leaf litter bed for a pair of wild type Betta hendra.