IAL and Banana leaves

[irsacae]

Ok so I have used Tania's best pot to boil up a batch of IAL over a few days bottled it and now its in the fridge

(cant wait for one of the kids to sneak a swig)

Question 1 How long is it good for

Question 2 I see both used as a breeding stimulant/water conditioner/anti everything cure all (if you know what I mean)

Is there any harm in using it all the time or is there a preferred dose rate to use it at on an on going basis so as not to loose effectiveness when you require to use it for what ever make pop up as a problem at some point.

If you know what I mean.

Kev

[maddzvk]

there's no dose rate. just keep in mind the more you use the darker your water and the lower your pH

the wild bettas like the water pretty dark and a much lower pH (ours are usually low 5)

the splendens are fine with almost clear water and usually have pH closer to 7.

so we use more for wilds less for splendens. but its personal choice

we also tend to add extra to the tanks around breeding time

(pH drops can stimulate breeding plus it has all the other benefits)

not sure how long it will stay good for

we generally use dry leaves or make tea cool it and add it straight in

[irsacae]

I didn't realise it had an effect on the PH I assume that would depend a lot on the KH to I am definitely going down the wild path more so than the fancy although it was meant to be the other way around.I really like the dark water.

Have you gone to the trouble of testing the GH KH and then the PH as you are adding the tea to see how much does what?

[maddzvk]

our wilds love it they are so much more active in tannined water than in clear water especially our krats

plus the dark water really makes any irrdescence pop!

yeah we use peat and IAL tea and leaves to drop our pH for the wilds weve got the pH down to 4.5 just using them

have never tested KH or GH though,

all our wilds love the tanks though and have been spawning regularly so i assume the parameters are pretty nice haha

heres one of our betta krataios(medium mouthbrooder).

thier tank is pretty dark water with IAL even though the have quite bright lights on them

[irsacae]

Great looking fish when you say medium mouth brooder are you referring to the size of the adult fish?I have had no joy getting peat over here only can get coco peat I am assuming you are talking about this but proper peat.Its seems that since Bunnings has taken over the world most of the old school nurseries are now gone and this is where I used to get it.

[les]

Hey Kev you should have said you wanted Peat. I got my last lot from someone. I could have included that with the book and bags I just got from her. If you use to much Banana leaf tea you water will start to smell like its going off . Those wilds are looking realy good.

Cheers

les

[maddzvk]

some of the bunnings moss is aquarium safe.

we've tried sphagnum moss and peat moss both from bunnings to no ill affect in our fish

looked it up when researchjng killifish originally

and yeah medium sized. no where near as big as bit as our unimac but dfinately larger than our uberis haha

(the krats are about 6-8cm body length)