Let’s go dark!

[Atitagain]

Gonna live update a tannins tea tinting of my 125G. Will not be checking comments or doing further research until finished just using plan I came up with. Don’t have any idea how this is gonna go but…

starting tank

ive got 1 Indian almond leaf for every 10G =12 1 alder cone for every 20G = 6 and 1 white oak acorn cap for every 20G =6

Got approximately 1G water to a boil with caps and cones 

then added IAL

folded them into high boil stirred 2 minutes turned heat down to 3/4 letting simmer 20 minutes 

 

Edited November 3, 2021 by Atitagain
Title change

[Atitagain]

Oh my I hope this washes out of wife’s pot she is gonna freak of coarse it’s her good cooking pot. Why would I use something different?

after 20 Min brought back to high boil stirred 2 min. Water is super dark already

simmer 20min

[Atitagain]

😬😬😬the smell it’s horrible. It (it being the smell) woke up my wife! She is insanely cra cra right now just from being woke up by a smell. Can’t really blame her but she hasn’t even seen the pot yet!!! But I’m pushing through even tho I have to use more of her cookware.

easier to ask for forgiveness than permission?

[Atitagain]

water is super dark now after another 2 min stirring high boil. Have heat set super low for last simmer 20 min. 
have no clue how much this will affect the water. It’s only gonna be 1G into 120ish Gs. I hope I got a good mixture I know you don’t wanna add to much to fast. I feel like I went on the safe side I was gonna do 1 IAL per 5G but backed off. 
Smell is dying down or I’m just getting used to it. Starting to smell more like regular tea to me. Problem with that tho, I can’t stand tea! I would never drink it again ever. “You gotta try this sweet tea it’s so sweet you can’t taste the tea” taste like DIRT! If I could imagine what it would taste like to boil dirty roots that’s tea I don’t care how much sweetener you put in!

[Atitagain]

Brewing done

so time to add the water. I let the IAL, cones, and caps chill in the freezer till their at temp.

of course just kidding tea is in freezer about to place the leaves in the tank. That water is DARK!

Edited November 3, 2021 by Atitagain
Speling

[Atitagain]

IAL, cones, and caps in the tank.

would rather let all fall where it goes naturally but with the vallisneria I don’t want to cover any. So I try to place leaves in dead spots on top of logs and I’ve got a big collection under the roots (on purpose). I let the tea get a lil to cold in the freezer not to bad so I’ll be adding it shortly.

not sure how I’m gonna add the tea. If I wait till 10:50 the circulators will be on (I run 2 small circulators for 10 minutes every 2 hours) and I can just let it flow in there. That sounds good to me.

im gonna take a pic immediately after pouring tea. Then wait till morning to post final pic. Then discuss process with anyone who followed (if anyone did) ive made it a point not to check on any comments to make sure I stayed on my original plan. Then discuss adjustments, mistakes, timeline for next tannins tea treatment, and call it a success or fail.

[Atitagain]

I’m a little nervous , should of done more research 😬😬😬😬. But this is where I’m at and I’m confident enough in my knowledge to take a chance. Fish are 1 1/2 hours into lights out so can’t say everyone looks fine everyone looks droopy (before and after tea) except the corys and their still doing their busy body thing as always. Tank looks more cloudy than dark right now. Hope that overnight it will circulate through and give me more of what I’m looking for. 

I’m sure I won’t get much sleep tonight so I’ll be back early in the morning.

[Atitagain]

very nice even tone throughout tank, no cloudiness either. Was hoping for a little darker but overall worked well. 
fish, shrimp, and snails all seem energetic and ate well this morning. 

[Odd Duck]

On 11/3/2021 at 5:14 AM, Atitagain said:

very nice even tone throughout tank, no cloudiness either. Was hoping for a little darker but overall worked well. 
fish, shrimp, and snails all seem energetic and ate well this morning. 

Looks good!

[Atitagain]

Gonna have to wait and see how long the tinting last to make final adjustments. Definitely want a darker results but maybe if say a week-2weeks as the tinting starts to fade, I’ll add another batch and that will get me where I wanna be. Not looking for blackwater but definitely a dark tint. I’m gonna be starting an experiment today using the peat moss pellets and when I figure out a good mix adding those into this tank as well. 
Very happy with the results, ive been just adding 5-10 IAL and some cones every week- ten days. And yes it slowly has been tinting water but in 125G without making tea I would need way to many ingredients to maintain water on the budget I have. 
I think my cooking time and process was fine. Ingredients probably need adjusted. 1-IAL to every 8G, 1-alder cone + acorn cap per 15G will be my next mixture. I can’t adjust amount of tea without making 2 batches so if new mixture doesn’t have a good improvement that’s what I will try.

Not sure how long tinting will last, if I can get about 2 weeks before I feel I need to add I will call this a huge success. If it’s only a couple days then I will have to find other ways to tint water because I can’t afford to do this every 5 days. Peat moss pellets, leaf liter, small branches, more driftwood, different cones, I have a lotus flower seed pods I’m waiting to see results before adding (maybe should add to ingredient mixture), and different pods/ leaves/ bark to add if needed.

[Atitagain]

I just changed the title of this thread because I want to keep documenting my experiences with tannins and keeping darkwater tanks. The old title “live tannin tea tinting “ would suggest just 1 event and I am planning to do all my experiments in the same fashion but don’t want to start new thread for every one. Hopefully there will be many. I would also like to have a place to discuss anything tannin related. Removing, adding, pics, benefits, ill affects, types, methods, ect…

i know this isn’t a real popular topic but I am absolutely obsessed with it and find the tanks amazing and interesting. It’s such a different effect and approach to aquariums and fish keeping. Don’t get me wrong I still find crystal clear water and beautiful aquascapes more attractive, pleasing to the eye. But only in the traditional sense of what a tanks “supposed “ to look like.

[Patrick_G]

I think this tank looks better with the tint! Well done. I’m not sure what area of the country you’re in but I’d probably start foraging to save money. In my area Alder cones are abundant, but I bet you have some tannin heavy plants in your area. Oak leaves are a pretty obvious choice, but something like Long Leaf Pine needles would probably work too. 

[Atitagain]

Starting new experiment with aquatic peat pellets. Using a 20G aquarium that has some new driftwood already leaking some tannins in the water not a lot but it is a little tinted than it was at start up.

so I started with peat pellets from Fluval 1/2 cup. Used a bag from old filter cartridge replacement not sure how tight the flow rate would be through these but it’s just a starting point. I will get better bags if needed.

then placed in bottom of HOB 

then placed a piece of coarse sponge on water outflow to collect as much if any debris that is lost from bag.

no immediate affect waited 1 hour 

still no noticeable affects. Will wait 24 hours check wait another 24 hours if still no affect will double peat.

[Atitagain]

On 11/3/2021 at 11:31 AM, Patrick_G said:

I think this tank looks better with the tint! Well done. I’m not sure what area of the country you’re in but I’d probably start foraging to save money. In my area Alder cones are abundant, but I bet you have some tannin heavy plants in your area. Oak leaves are a pretty obvious choice, but something like Long Leaf Pine needles would probably work too. 

I keep trying to get time to go but wife finds other stuff that’s obviously “more important “ to do in my free time. 🤣I haven’t researched what I could find in these here parts. Midwest Indiana but I will research and put my foot down and go.(as long as she lets me)

[Taco Playz]

Looking really good!

 

[Griznatch]

Looking good and thanks for the updates! I get the same "what the heck are you doing to my pot" looks all the time when I'm boiling wood, or rocks, or dandelion leaves.

Thanks for the chuckles 🙂

[Gator]

Atitagain;

You don't need to boil acorn caps to release the tannins, nor do you need to boil any wood, leaves, or peat moss to release the tannins. Just drop them into your tank and let nature do the rest, they will release their tannins in their own time and manner.

Since I was five, I've spent most of my life living, working, keeping aquariums, and fishing in Florida. I'd go fishing in the Spring when Bass are bedding and I'd see beds down to about five feet before the water was too dark to see anything deeper. The water above the beds is a dark yellow to a light brown color similar to your first photo, but the water around the bed looks black, this is due to the decayed vegetation fanned out of the nest by the male Bass. Decayed vegetation on the bottom is the reason why the water in lakes and swamps looks black, but if you get lucky enough to find an area of a swamp that is narrow enough for a sufficient flow of water to keep the decayed vegetation moving and it's shallow enough, you'll see the sand at the bottom.

Mother nature doesn't boil any of the materials you're boiling to make the water softer, more acidic, and darker, you'll be happier if you didn't anger your wife.

Sincerely

Gator 

[Atitagain]

@Taco Playz@Griznatch thank you both. It was just a random thought to do it. Would have just made notes and posted it on my fishroom journal, but thought it would be more authentic to use a “post as I go” method.

[Atitagain]

@Gatorso what your saying is have patience. Ugggg I mess up there a lot. You are right there is no boiling in nature and for best overall results best to let nature do it’s job. 
I have been adding 8-10 IAL and 10 Adler cones a weekish. I now have oak acorn caps and lotus flower seed pods. 
Thank you for your responses you are being very helpful and encouraging. It is very much appreciated 

 Sincerely Brian from Indiana 

[Streetwise]

Looking good! You could keep a bucket of leaves 🍁 with an air stone, and keep topping off your tank with it.

[Guppysnail]

@Brandy   and @Streetwise. Gave me a great tip. When gravel vacuuming let the yuck settle to the bottom of a bucket and if nitrates are good you can re-ad some of the already tannin stained water to the tank. 

[Streetwise]

This is not appropriate for all tanks, but this was my last sponge cleaning. I just squeezed them out in the aquarium to get the water moving a bit more.

I just can’t bear giving away plant nutrients. I do add excellent water with every top-off.

[Atitagain]

@Streetwisethays a very good idea thank you. Leaves are just starting to change here, I will be foraging as soon as I can. Don’t have a source yet but a couple leads. And maybe some public woods that are close ish.

@Guppysnailanother good idea I have a fairly low bio load in this tank being so big with smaller fish. So this should work good. Thank you 

[Streetwise]

@Atitagain, remind us where you are again, regarding trees.

[Atitagain]

@StreetwiseCentral Indiana just south of Indianapolis in Franklin