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

M
Lee Sweeting said:
Haha! That's pretty cool. Mine just run for cover when they see me. Looking forward to the pictures :)


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Most fish can be trained.
I always gently tap on the glass when feeding. My boraras immediately go to the surface. Do the same with the goldies and koi in the pond. Its a 20 year habit.
 
Lee Sweeting said:
I'll give that a go mate. My boraras come straight up for food. It's just the Paros that run for cover. They've only been in a few days though. They might be a bit better once they settle in.


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wild caught can be stubborn. My corydoras pygmaeus freak out, even after 2 years of ' training'
 
darren636 said:
wild caught can be stubborn. My corydoras pygmaeus freak out, even after 2 years of ' training'
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I don't think my Paros are wild caught, I did ask the guy in the shop I bought them from and he said they were tank bred. Hopefully they will get used to me. I know they are known for being shy though.


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True. Mine only do it with me though and ive had them 2 years now. They come up to my face if im sat nose pressed to the glass.
Not all do though but they all know when its feeding time and are out waiting. I believe mine were wild from what my lfs said. Probably explains the mixed species.
 
Alastair said:
True. Mine only do it with me though and ive had them 2 years now. They come up to my face if im sat nose pressed to the glass.
Not all do though but they all know when its feeding time and are out waiting. I believe mine were wild from what my lfs said. Probably explains the mixed species.
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Thats pretty cool mate, especially considering they are so shy. I'll try to get mine used to me, at the minute they are pretty secretive. When i first put them in the tank they were shoaling around together. They seem to have split up now, some of the males seem to have their own caves, and i have also seen a bit of squabbling. Its looking like i have three males and four females at the minute. However one of them is just to small to tell.
 
babu2eba.jpg


A quick snap. :)


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I find this tank very Interesting
You are using equilibrium with ro, with a incredibly low kh. How is your filter coping. . Is it really this simple?
 
Lots of paro keepers use pure RO or rain water with no mineralisation. Their blackwater habitats generally have pretty much zero KH and it seems to be important for egg development that KH remains low (whether directly or by creating a low germ load I'm not sure). With plenty of humic acids from leaves and wood creating a low pH, any ammonia present will predominantly be in ionized form (ammonium) which is drastically less toxic. So although biochemical activity in the filter may be rather low, any nitrogenous compounds that are present are much less toxic than in buffered water.

For this reason many Paro keepers do away with filters altogether and use hardy plants such as java fern and Ceratopteris to help with any excess nitrogen.
 
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^^ thanks Tom.
So you run a filter in the sane manner as a normal tank? I get males dancing at the girls at about 150 tds, I have been reluctant to soften any further than 90 tds. It twists my melon man.
 
darren636 said:
^^ thanks Tom.
So you run a filter in the sane manner as a normal tank? I get males dancing at the girls at about 150 tds, I have been reluctant to soften any further than 90 tds. It twists my melon man.
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I've got filters running as I had them anyway and I generally think a little water movement is a good thing. I've had paros attempt to breed in hard waters, but the eggs are never successful. If you don't have a heavy stocking then I wouldn't be afraid of lowering the tds.
 
From parosphromenus project -

"Either a good freshwater spring close to us, or clean rainwater may be used. Because of an impact from possible air pollutants one has to be careful, but after a longer rainy period, this should be not an issue. For those dependent on their tap water. one of several, well known and industrially offered methods to bring it to the appropriate water quality must be used. These are a conductivity between about 20 and 100 micro Siemens / cm, a carbonate hardness of (almost) 0 degrees KH and a total hardness of less than 2 degrees GH. In particular, the carbonates must be removed. Therefore, some other salts (e.g. sodium chloride) may be present in a small extent.

The pH value should definitely be below the neutral point of 7.0, in the acidic range. In many cases, a value between 5.0 and 6.5 is suitable, however, in some ones not. Especially for wild caught fish and the species with the most delicate eggs. pH values of 4.0 and even less are often required . A water with the required low conductivity can be acidified well using acidic peat, but good results can be achieved with alder cones, and even with careful, controlled (!), dropwise addition of acidifying water additives ("oak extracts" or phosphoric acid). The biological function of these low pH values is not yet fully understood, but it is likely that it mainly is to suppress harmful bacteria which may attack the eggs of the fish. In fact, the bacterial load in highly acidic water is much lower than in less acidic or even alkaline water. Today you can buy good, easy-to-use bacteria test sets - for a friend of Parosphromenus a good acquisition.


It should not be ignored that the low pH values of natural water, in which Parosphromenus live, are mainly caused by humid acids. While there are sometimes breeding successes of Parosphromenus in plain water, usually the addition of materials that release humid substances is recommended (fresh bog wood, almond leaves soaked beech and oak leaves, alder cones)."
 
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Tom! Have you heard of blackwater soup? Theres a recipe on the net somewhere. Basically you take a pan of water (probably ro) and chuck in a load of almond, beech and oak leaves along with some alder cones. You let them soak over night and then bring the water to the boil, and then repeat process again two or three times. The end result being a concentrated soup which you can add to your tank water to reduce the pH. Sounds like a great idea for naturally lowering pH, and adding humic acids.
 
Heh yeah I have seen stuff like that. I'm not sure I need to go to the trouble really in my small tanks - I'm doing water changes with 'pure' RO (read: not terribly pure from my LFS) and with a couple of handfuls of beech leaves and plenty of wood I expect my water values will settle out somewhere around 50µs and a pH below 5.
 
BigTom said:
Heh yeah I have seen stuff like that. I'm not sure I need to go to the trouble really in my small tanks - I'm doing water changes with 'pure' RO (read: not terribly pure from my LFS) and with a couple of handfuls of beech leaves and plenty of wood I expect my water values will settle out somewhere around 50µs and a pH below 5.
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Sounds as thought you are sorted. I haven't come across it before, sounds like a great idea.
 
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