Maintaining a leave litter in tank

[iwishweallcouldwin]

just to ask, how to keep the ketapang leaves inside the tank and just keep adding on new leaves as they break down to achieve a layer of leaf litter? would that hinder the siphoning of dirt particles during water change? want to keep a nice and natural setup, but just unsure of the maintanence involved, hope to have some advice. thanks.

[illumnae]

the best person to answer that question would probably be valice i think he has had that sort of setup for some time now so he has experience with it.

i'm trying the same thing out myself in my current setup, and it's working well so far...the apistos love it and are preferring the leaves as hiding and breeding grounds as opposed to the pots/caves i put in for that purpose.

as for the siphoning of dirt, i don't siphon dirt off the gravel anyway, so it didn't even occur to me as being a potential problem

[doppelbanddwarf]

Yup valice would have the most experience in this. I tried it once in a sandy setup but that time i removed the leaves when they were transparent. This time i'm going to try vincent's method of just leaving them all in.

[iwishweallcouldwin]

haha ok, thanks for your input, looks like its time for me to get more ketapang leaves!!!

[valice]

Errr...
Although I have the leaves in the tank, but there is a massive filteration of that tank. The rotting of the leaves will create ammonia pockets...

So please guys, do still carry out your water changes yeah? In case your fishes die due to ammonia poisoning, I hope I wouldn't be the cause...

[illumnae]

time to add more biohome into my filter! it's capable of overfiltrating too (600li/hr in a 2ft with a huge cavity for media)

would 20% weekly water change on top of the filtration mentioned above be sufficient vincent?

[genes]

Hey guys

You are talking about stacking layers of ketapang leaves in you tank with just sponge or box filters. In the end, the leaves are just going to rot and you will be left with mulm on the substrate. Not a pretty sight. So that means constant vaccuming of the rotten leaves and water change is necessary for you guys or else the water will stink and foul up pretty fast.

So if you guys want to leave the rotting leaves in. Invest in a good cannistor filter like what valice did and over filtrate your tank.

[valice]

That tank which I pull the stunt was overfiltered by 1 sponge filter + 1 Eheim 2008 internal filter + 1 Ehiem 2213 filter. And that tank is only 1.5ft in size. And water change is 30% every week.

So, if want to keep a leave litter, over filteration is necessary. Else, best to remove some of the leaves once in a while before adding new ones.

[illumnae]

haha ok point taken!

[iwishweallcouldwin]

haha in that case i think its wiser for me to stick to my DIY boiled ketapang leaves extract.... cleaner that way... thanks alot guys for your advice... and thanks for splitting the thread... think i have a bad habit of always going off the discussion topic.... would like to sincerely apologise!

[valice]

No issue clint.
Split out the topic will allow better exploration and discussion of the topic as well. Will benefit the others who wish to explore creation of a leave litter biotope in their tanks.

Maybe you can still try, but remove the leaves when they start to break down into just the stem and veins and add in fresh leaves. The fishes will appreciate. Have seen my female A.bitaeniata using the leaves as a hiding space for herself and the fries. Quite interesting actions.

[iwishweallcouldwin]

hmmm ok.. maybe i'll give it a try... but will the water turn super dark over time? my tank is only running on a normal sponge filter... and whenever i add ketapang leaves in my oto will always be the first one to pounce on them....

[illumnae]

what i do with ketapang leaves is to soak them in water for 24 hours first before adding them to the tank. that way there will only be minimal staining of the water. the staining in my tank is not very visible to the naked eye, and i only just changed the leaves after 3 weeks

[trident]

iwishweallcouldwin,
I use ketapang too. Water will be darker the first few days, after changing water the water will gradually lighten up.
richard

[iwishweallcouldwin]

yeah i don't really like my water to be too dark, that's why i followed my friend's recommendation of boiling the ketapang leaves until the extract is of a 'teh-o' colour, for non-locals, that is tea without milk, then i'll store the extract in a bottle in the fridge, and pour some into my tanks each time i do a water change until i am satisfied with the colouration of the water.

this way, the staining of the tank water can be controlled, and i find it cleaner this way as well, only drawback is that it may not look as natural as having ketapang leaves physically inside the tank, which may not appeal to some who prefers to keep the tank natural, and perhaps your fishes may not feel as 'high'... afterall, ketapang leaves are like spa sessions for them haha.

[trident]

having the leaves in the water has it advantage too. Apistos use it as a hiding place and shrimps take it for dinner.

[iwishweallcouldwin]

apistos and shrimps can live together???? won't the shrimps become finger food???

[trident]

no no they were in different tanks,
sorry for the misunderstanding.
I use Ketapang leaf for both tanks.

[iwishweallcouldwin]

haha i see i see. but with a simple spong filter, will the decaying ketapang leaves cause the water to become dirty? please advise. thanks.

[illumnae]

the sponge filter will probably not be able to keep up with decaying leaves. as pointed out by valice earlier, his tank was severely overfiltrated! haha...i don't dare to leave mine to rot and i'm also overfiltrating (using a 600li/hour HOB with a huge cavity for media), just not to the huge extent valice was just changed my leaves after 3 weeks in the tank and they still hadn't rotted yet, so maintenance isn't THAT big a hassle...change once a month?