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Roots Dyed Dark - Low Tech Blackwater (updated 08-04-14)

I've got some paro's on order, should have them by the end of next week. Exciting stuff.

Water parameters are also stable @

pH 6.0 - 6.4
gH 3.0
kH 0 - 0.8
Conductivity 90 micro siemens / cm

My live food cultures (vinegar eels and banana/micro worms) are all up and running, which is great!

I think i'm prepared :hungover:
 
How are you maintaining your water kh etc?

Looking forward to some photos
 
darren636 said:
How are you maintaining your water kh etc?

Looking forward to some photos
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Hi Darren! not a lot has changed in terms of how the tank looks. The crypts are all melting away, slowly. All the other plants seem to be adjusting just fine. I'll get some pictures of the paros up once i have them in the tank.

I'm filtering through peat, and have added lots of alder cones and catappa leaves. This in conjunction with an active substrate and ro water is keeping the ph low. I'm also using seachem equilibrium to remineralise the ro, so i can pretty much set the gH/kH as i please. I'm changing about 10% of the water a week, which seems to keep the parameters pretty stable.

I should get some more pictures up by the end of next week. :)
 
Awesome Lee :) . Looking forward to more pictures please. ...what is the purpose of catappa leaves & the alder cones? Are they meant to help with the breeding of gouramis?
 
faizal said:
Awesome Lee :) . Looking forward to more pictures please. ...what is the purpose of catappa leaves & the alder cones? Are they meant to help with the breeding of gouramis?
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Hi Faizal! Thanks for the comment. The catappa leaves & the alder cones leech tannins/humic acids into the water. These help lower the pH, and also have antiseptic properties, which help protect the fish from disease. Water quality/ properties are very important when attempting to breed Paro's, thats why the gh/kH and pH are low. The paro's come from black water habitats in South East Asia, and are very sensitive, requiring exacting water parameters.
 
faizal said:
I am from a small town in Malaysia called Alor Setar. It's in south east asia bordering on thailand.:)
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I've passed through Malaysia a few times, but never had chance to take a good look around, its defiantly on my list of places to visit. I love that part of the world, i've done a bit of travelling around Thailand, which is one of my favourite places, very beautiful :).

So do you have any Parosphromenus habitat local to you?
 
Great set up mate. The paros will love it in their. Ill be doing a really black water specific set up in my living room shortly with some more paros ive got coming.

Looking forward to following its progress. Ill get those bits out to you next week. Id stick to purely just the paros nothing else.
 
Alastair said:
Great set up mate. The paros will love it in their. Ill be doing a really black water specific set up in my living room shortly with some more paros ive got coming.

Looking forward to following its progress. Ill get those bits out to you next week. Id stick to purely just the paros nothing else.
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Thanks Alastair! I like the sound of the backwater specific set up. What size tank are you thinking about? I might eventually set up another small backwater tank. I was offered some P. Nagyi recently but the guy only had a trio, so not enough for the big tank. It would be nice to have some other species on the go.
 
Lee Sweeting said:
So do you have any Parosphromenus habitat local to you?
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I am not really sure,.Most fishes here come from local fish farms. But yeah ,....there are a lot of other fishes that you can see at the paddy field areas but i am not familiar with their species.Sorry Lee,...:oops:

Just out of curiosity though,...what's the tap water gh/kh and pH in your area like?
 
Lee Sweeting said:
Thanks Alastair! I like the sound of the backwater specific set up. What size tank are you thinking about? I might eventually set up another small backwater tank. I was offered some P. Nagyi recently but the guy only had a trio, so not enough for the big tank. It would be nice to have some other species on the go.
Click to expand...

Something around 80 to 90cm but shallow with roots hanging down in the water and really dark water.
That's good that you know someone who has paros to sell. Id love to get some others from a breeder
 
ldcgroomer said:
I'm with darren. Most of the people on this forum are blokes. Most of the time they are complaining that plants aren't growing fast enough. Who are the impatient ones? Women have patience, we just have to waste alot of it on men...

Sent from my GT-I9505 using Tapatalk
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Women surely have more patience than most men, or their mother's would have placed a pillow over their faces while they were still in their crib's.
Another example would be the infamous.."are we there yet?,are we there yet?,are we there yet ?
Only a woman/mother, could/would tolerate this over a cross country auto trip to grandma's house.
Course everybody know's Grandma's are saint's.
 
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Alastair said:
Something around 80 to 90cm but shallow with roots hanging down in the water and really dark water.
That's good that you know someone who has paros to sell. Id love to get some others from a breeder
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Sounds great mate. I really love the hanging root idea. I may be able to help you with the paro's. I'll pm you mate. :)
 
faizal said:
I am not really sure,.Most fishes here come from local fish farms. But yeah ,....there are a lot of other fishes that you can see at the paddy field areas but i am not familiar with their species.Sorry Lee,...:oops:

Just out of curiosity though,...what's the tap water gh/kh and pH in your area like?
Click to expand...



No worries faizal!

I have very hard water straight out of the tap. I haven't tested myself, but my water quality report says 14.0 kH, i'm not sure what the gH is? pH straight out of the tap is 7.6. I use RO water though, thats 0 gH, 0 kH and pH 7.0.
 
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