Tanins and peat

[wlbadger]

What are tanins? Is it what you get from peat? I have tetras and wondered if tanins would hurt my other fish, clown loach and cory. If it is peat is it just the stuff you get at the plant nursery? Do I just stick it in the aqua clear filter?

 

[Rose]

Tanis is what turns your tank water murky. It comes from new driftwood put in the tank. It has nothing to do with peat. It won't hurt a thing neither will the peat. Rose

 

[wlbadger]

Isn't there an easier way to put tanins in a tank? Driftwood is so expensive. And what will peat do to the water? By the way thanks for all the help Rose, I decided not to plant my tank because of my fear of snail infestation.

 

[Davy Reynolds]

Some peats you get from the garden centre contain high levels of nitrate and sulphate. These high levels are not good of the aquarium. You can get lower levels in some bag but which ones are often hard to find.

You can easily buy these extracts from your lfs in bag form or in a liquid form. Take a trip to your lfs and see what they have. In the long run a peice of bogwood would be better.

 

[Alien Anna]

Some peats you get from the garden centre contain high levels of nitrate and sulphate. These high levels are not good of the aquarium. You can get lower levels in some bag but which ones are often hard to find.

Yes, but you can always use pond peat - my LFS sells it for about £9 per bag and it's guaranteed safe (not nitrates or sulphur etc.).

Btw, re. an earlier post, tannins are brown coloured acids found in decaying plant material (and tea). Amazon fish have evolved to swim in brown waters saturated with tannins (which is why they have such bright colours - so they can see potential mates through the murk) but I don't believe they need tannins (although they like the side effects: soft, acid water).

 

[Davy Reynolds]

Cool they'll need to get some of that stuff round here

 

[adeyc]

Just to stress. DON'T put teabags into your tank to get tannins fish don't need tannins. all tannins realy do is colour the water. driftwood contains tannins as does peat and compost and tea etc,apart from coffee anything that colors the water a brown/golden/yellow(tea) colour will generaly have tannins in it. It's also the stuff that makes you run to the toilet after a pot or two of earl grey.  :laugh:

 

[wlbadger]

Thank godness the whole tea thing never really caught on here in the states. So tanins won't make my tetras look better?

 

[Great Lakes]

Badger, can't you drive over to lake Michigan? Driftwood all over the shore.

 

[wlbadger]

First of all, I am a poor college student 1 and a 1/2 hours from the lake. Second I'm not taking a pilgrimage to get a twig from a lake that is so dirty it would probably burn holes in my tanks glass. I'm just being sarcstic, sorry. I live on 2 lakes right here on the isthmus so I can go take a look down there. To get the parisites and germs out what would you recomend. Boiling and bleach?

 

[Great Lakes]

I pick up dry stuff. so any aquatic creatures are dead. Then I soak it in hot water to drive out any land going bug that might have crawled aboard, and to kill any bacteria, then plunk it in. I live one block from lake Huron, so it is easy for me to hit the beach. Forget sometimes that you can live in a great lake state and be miles from one. The danger in driftwood collecting is that you will find a piece you love, and it will be so big that you will have to buy a bigger tank to use it