Humic Acid

[Ted L. Dutcher]

Other than trying to replicate a natural enviroment, is there a known reason for using blackwater systems or adding extra Humic acid if you are able to make acidic, soft water? By adding leaves, etc is the humic acid produced
suitable for whatever its biological need for the fish is?

I’m questioning the need for making extra extract, other than making the tanks look natural. I know there are those who try to duplicate the Idonesian swamps for looks of enviroment but am very curious if it is actually necessary for the health of the fish. By the time we get our species from collecters and shippers and dealers, do they really know what home is, other than what we provide?

I hope I’m not stirring up a pot here, but just curious what do we know at this point in keeping Paros other than the prime info of soft, acid water and the bit of humic acid from the variety of leaves and driftwoods leached into the tanks. Of course we need plants, hiding places, low pH, caves etc.

I hope I don’t get attacked here since at this point we follow all we can get on their natural enviroment… so I guess I’m mostly questioning the exact need for the Humic acid since we can’t really measure it?? other than how dark our water is.

[bartian]

Off course you’re not going to be fired, I also questioned it. I normally keep blackwater fish in pure RO water, with leaves and peat added. When I didn’t use peat or leaves, the fish seemed to run out of salts and minerals. They didn’t colour up and looked sick. This quickly disappeared when I added oak leaves. It also disappeared a bit when I added plant nutrition, but not as good as humic, and it also raised the pH.

In tap water though, they do fine without humic or anything. But since they don’t breed in tap water I recommend using RO with humic acids. So if you want to keep them alive until you have a sufficient breeding tank I recommend using tap water, but as soon as possible get them an acidic blackwater tank for breeding.

This goes up for all fish I tried it with, including Apistogramma, Dicrossus(these did a lot better though), Betta, Pelvicachromis(this was by accident, didn’t intend to try them and they really didn’t like it!!) and Parosphromenus.

[Ted L. Dutcher]

I agree with you and did the same with apistos, but never added any more extract than the leaves and driftwood would supply. My question is, is really necessary to add more humic acid and tannins than what is provided by the acidic leaves and drift wood.

I have noticed that oak and beech leaves seem to provide a lighter or less intense tannin staining. The fig leaves are heavey in tannins….does that really biologically make any difference to the fish? With other species I’ve had, it did not seem to make any difference as long as some staining was apparent. But having black or golden water didnt matter as long as some tannins were available. I do use pure RO water with a variety of leaves soaking in it giveing the water a yellowish or golden color. Since it (tannins and humic acid are not easily measurable) is lightly colored do we make more “blackwater” additives just to be safe?

I know Paros come from a variety of blackwater systems and would never keep them in pure RO water…. but we seem to have no measurement of humic acid and tannins other that its color.

I have no intention of keeping any fish that I like in my tap water. lol It’s only suitable for rift lake cichlids.

[bartian]

I never use other additives. The leaves, peat and wood do their work good enough. In my betta strohi-tank I added phosphoric acid as experiment. This doesn’t do anything with humic but since they do not want to breed I tried lowering pH to 3,5. This doesn’t seem to do anything though. I believe it is the humic substance itself rather then pH lowering caused by it.

[Author]

Posts