Blackwater for my pleco?

[daoism]

should i add blackwater to my small tank with only a pleco and 2 mickey mouse fries

[bossteck]

Hi there,

Do you already have some driftwood / bogwood in your tank? If so, the tanic acid released would also lower the ph of your water. What's the current ph level of your tank?

If you plan on altering your water chemistry, it is best to get some reliable test kits before you take action.

In my opinion, you should try to keep your tank as stable as possible, more so if it is a small tank. Changes should be done incrementally. This means adding black water, if you so chose to use it, into a separate bucket first and use pre-mixed water to do water changes for your tank.

Cheers

[wasabi8888]

Before you add black water, please do a test of the tank water. PH from tap water varies from woodlands to tampines. I stay at the former and PH from tap is 8. Overnight it drops to 7.23.

Generally plecos can survive in 7 plus PH. Black water can be used to condition the water as there are other benefits (if I am not wrong). As Bossteck said, test the PH first. I have a friend whose tank water is 4 without adding anything.

[Quixotic]

Presumably the Mickey Mouse fries are platies, they actualy prefer pH between the range of 7.0 to 8.0. However, as they are quite hardy, they are able to tolerate lower acidic pH. So, IMHO, pH somewhere in around 6.5 to 7.0 would be ideally okay for both.