How rapidly do Indian almond leaves lower ph

[Guppysnail]

I would like to use them because my bristlenose are spawning and shrimp like them. I also have guppies.  I do not want to put them in and cause ph shock to anything or cause shock doing water changes. I have 7.4-7.6 ph liquid rock hard water extremely high kh. 

how fast will it alter my ph

it binds to calcium is the calcium still usable for mystery snails and guppies? I’ve read studies that they are beneficial to guppies but I know they fall apart in me in softer water.

thanks for your help in advance

 

[CT_]

I think there's not much total acid in leaves and you need a pretty low kh for it to matter.  For example in my 15g tank (about 10.5g of it is water) would need about 30ml of 10%sulfuric acid(aka API pH down) to remove the buffering capacity of 4kh. 

 

[Guppysnail]

On 7/16/2021 at 10:21 PM, CT_ said:

I think there's not much total acid in leaves and you need a pretty low kh for it to matter.  For example in my 15g tank (about 10.5g of it is water) would need about 30ml of 10%sulfuric acid(aka API pH down) to remove the buffering capacity of 4kh. 

 

Awesome thank you!

[Dark River Aquatics]

I’ve never had them drastically lower my ph or hardness, my well water from the tap is ph 8.2ish and gh/kh somewhere around 11 (On the API test kit), and I’ve set up new tanks using handful upon handful of leaves with no huge difference in the ph or kh. That said I’d ease into it, boil the heck out of a small number of the mini catappa leaves or maybe 1-2 of the large size ones, and add them gradually - it wouldn’t hurt to go slow, even just a few of them will provide grazing area for fry & shrimps so add over time and test as you go to make sure things don’t go haywire and you should be golden with the buffering capacity of your water.

 

You can also remove the bulk of the tannins and get the leaves very soft by double or triple boiling them, let them go for an hour then dump the water, refill, and repeat and you can remove a lot of the tannin staining that way if the goal is simply to provide grazing material - or, if you do want the tannins, I’ve found that organic rooibos tea is amazing for adding a golden tint and I’ve never had it alter chemistry at all. It’s fairly cheap online for bags of 100% organic rooibos, just steep a bag or two in hot water and let it cool to room temp then pour it in and you have an instant tint 

[Gannon]

I've found this process to be very slow as long as your don't overload the tank with leaves

[Colu]

I used them in my 50 gallon I put a couple of large leaves in and they didn't lower my pH by much about 0.1

[TankofFish]

On 7/16/2021 at 10:12 PM, Guppysnail said:

I would like to use them because my bristlenose are spawning and shrimp like them. I also have guppies.  I do not want to put them in and cause ph shock to anything or cause shock doing water changes. I have 7.4-7.6 ph liquid rock hard water extremely high kh. 

how fast will it alter my ph

it binds to calcium is the calcium still usable for mystery snails and guppies? I’ve read studies that they are beneficial to guppies but I know they fall apart in me in softer water.

thanks for your help in advance

 

extremely high kh, you could probly put a whole almond tree in that tank and would see no diffrence, well the water would turn a golden tea brown, which I think is very pretty 

Almond leaves are great and very beneficial. I always have a bag of 25 or more on hand and keep them in all my tanks....... well not in my African cichlid tank

[Guppysnail]

On 7/16/2021 at 10:52 PM, Dark River Aquatics said:

I’ve never had them drastically lower my ph or hardness, my well water from the tap is ph 8.2ish and gh/kh somewhere around 11 (On the API test kit), and I’ve set up new tanks using handful upon handful of leaves with no huge difference in the ph or kh. That said I’d ease into it, boil the heck out of a small number of the mini catappa leaves or maybe 1-2 of the large size ones, and add them gradually - it wouldn’t hurt to go slow, even just a few of them will provide grazing area for fry & shrimps so add over time and test as you go to make sure things don’t go haywire and you should be golden with the buffering capacity of your water.

 

You can also remove the bulk of the tannins and get the leaves very soft by double or triple boiling them, let them go for an hour then dump the water, refill, and repeat and you can remove a lot of the tannin staining that way if the goal is simply to provide grazing material - or, if you do want the tannins, I’ve found that organic rooibos tea is amazing for adding a golden tint and I’ve never had it alter chemistry at all. It’s fairly cheap online for bags of 100% organic rooibos, just steep a bag or two in hot water and let it cool to room temp then pour it in and you have an instant tint 

Thank you.  I actually want the tannins and infusoria it grows to help the babies until their immune system kicks in and they can eat on their own. My shrimp will love it too I’m sure. I was going to add one medium leaf at a time to watch the development and monitor params. I was just worried that would be too much at once. 

[Guppysnail]

On 7/16/2021 at 10:52 PM, Dark River Aquatics said:

I’ve never had them drastically lower my ph or hardness, my well water from the tap is ph 8.2ish and gh/kh somewhere around 11 (On the API test kit), and I’ve set up new tanks using handful upon handful of leaves with no huge difference in the ph or kh. That said I’d ease into it, boil the heck out of a small number of the mini catappa leaves or maybe 1-2 of the large size ones, and add them gradually - it wouldn’t hurt to go slow, even just a few of them will provide grazing area for fry & shrimps so add over time and test as you go to make sure things don’t go haywire and you should be golden with the buffering capacity of your water.

 

You can also remove the bulk of the tannins and get the leaves very soft by double or triple boiling them, let them go for an hour then dump the water, refill, and repeat and you can remove a lot of the tannin staining that way if the goal is simply to provide grazing material - or, if you do want the tannins, I’ve found that organic rooibos tea is amazing for adding a golden tint and I’ve never had it alter chemistry at all. It’s fairly cheap online for bags of 100% organic rooibos, just steep a bag or two in hot water and let it cool to room temp then pour it in and you have an instant tint 

This is great info!

[Guppysnail]

On 7/17/2021 at 2:58 AM, TankofFish said:

extremely high kh, you could probly put a whole almond tree in that tank and would see no diffrence, well the water would turn a golden tea brown, which I think is very pretty 

Almond leaves are great and very beneficial. I always have a bag of 25 or more on hand and keep them in all my tanks....... well not in my African cichlid tank

My gh is 12-14 sometimes 16…almost crunchy 🤣 depending on day my kh is 11-12 sometimes 15

yeah it’s the infusoria and anti fungal anti bacterial properties I’m looking for until their immune system catches up.  They are longfin lemon blue eyes and those tail ends are so super delicate. 

[laritheloud]

On 7/17/2021 at 5:52 AM, Guppysnail said:

My gh is 12-14 sometimes 16…almost crunchy 🤣 depending on day my kh is 11-12 sometimes 15

yeah it’s the infusoria and anti fungal anti bacterial properties I’m looking for until their immune system catches up.  They are longfin lemon blue eyes and those tail ends are so super delicate. 

I've used 5 or 6 almond leaves at the same time in my 29 gallon and it made no noticeable effect on my pH. Our kH is 10 to 12, gH the same.

[sudofish]

Good to know as I was about to go fish supply shopping at my sister's apartment and snag some of her almond leaves. I added driftwood to my 10 gallon tank and found that I love the look of tannins in the water. With my hardness and KH at almost 20 I don't think the leaves will alter my PH.

[TankofFish]

On 7/17/2021 at 10:38 AM, sudofish said:

Good to know as I was about to go fish supply shopping at my sister's apartment and snag some of her almond leaves. I added driftwood to my 10 gallon tank and found that I love the look of tannins in the water. With my hardness and KH at almost 20 I don't think the leaves will alter my PH.

Yeah, your PH will just laugh at the almond leaves with a KH like that

[Jungle Fan]

On 7/16/2021 at 8:12 PM, Guppysnail said:

I would like to use them because my bristlenose are spawning and shrimp like them. I also have guppies.  I do not want to put them in and cause ph shock to anything or cause shock doing water changes. I have 7.4-7.6 ph liquid rock hard water extremely high kh. 

how fast will it alter my ph

it binds to calcium is the calcium still usable for mystery snails and guppies? I’ve read studies that they are beneficial to guppies but I know they fall apart in me in softer water.

thanks for your help in advance

 

Here's a short article for you you might find informative from Tannin Aquatics which is a great source also for botanicals past Catappa leaves and Alder cones they also have some of the rarer seed pots from South America, and India for a more authentic look in your blackwater tank.

https://tanninaquatics.com/blogs/the-tint-1/that-ph-thing-again?_pos=1&_sid=c41dbfabf&_ss=r