20G long "blackwater" planted community after a long hiatus

I have had a fish tank for a good portion of my life, and I've kept just bettas and snails in that time...with a couple of sloppy attempts at java fern and driftwood "aquascaping" here and there. However, my last betta, who I kept in college, went in a very stressful way--he'd lived a long life, but that had left him vulnerable to disease, and one after the other before his passing had thoroughly discouraged me from the hobby. With the lack of space in my college dorm and then apartment, and lingering anxiety about being fit for fishkeeping, I didn't have it in me to start up again until now.

I'm now several years out of college. That time as well as my now reliable income have encouraged me to get back into the hobby again. I've done a lot of research, but I fully expect to hit some roadblocks as I actually put that reading into practice, especially since this will be my first community aquarium. This will also be my first tank above 10 gallons, which is incredibly exciting. A 20 gallon may still be a nano tank, but it's massive to me! I'm hoping this thread can help others in my situation get back into the hobby without so much of the waffling and anxiety I've experienced as I've tried to get started.

And onto the tank! It will be on a heavy-duty steel rack (the Gladiator EZ Connect Steel Heavy Duty 5-Tier Utility Shelving Unit (48-in W x 18-in D x 72-in H), for anyone curious) alongside my roommate's leopard gecko, so I'm waiting to get that rack in before I set it up properly. Which will hopefully be tonight! However, I can at least do an overview of what I've got so far.

Tank Essentials

• Tank: Aqueon 20 gallon long (good size, not too heavy)
• Lid: Aqueon Versa-Top 30" (clean and simple, easy to put lights on)
• Filter 1: AquaClear 50 (saw good recommendations, dedicated area to swap out filter media)
• Filter 2: Hygger Double Sponge filter (M) with a Tetra Whisper 20-40G pump (good reviews and can be used to quickly cycle a hospital tank if need be)
• Additional Filtration: A second bag of AquaClear 50 Biomax to replace the carbon in the AquaClear 50 (carbon will remove the tannins I want!)
• Heater: Eheim Jaeger 100 (good reviews, seems reliable, but I'll be watching it like a hawk)
• Thermometer: JW Aquarium SmartTemp Thermometer (magnets to the side, easy view=check often)
• Light: NICREW SkyLED Plus, 30-36", 30 Watts (good reviews, adjustable intensity, and good strength for the 20G long, though most of it will be blocked by floating plants)

Decorative Elements

• Artificial: A weird cube ("Imagitarium Resin Rustic Cube Aquatic Decor") from PetCo that tickled my fancy. Will probably need some sanding.
• Plants: None (yet! definitely floating plants, and will see if I can't stick to SE Asian, low-light varieties outside of the floaters)
• Driftwood: None (yet! something with tannins and ideally a lot of thin branches to give it a mangrove feel)
• Rock/stone: None (yet! maybe some smooth river pebbles, and possibly a rock "platform" above the sand on one side of the tank)
• Botanicals: None (yet! not sure what will be most consistent as far as producing tannins and reducing pH)
• Substrate: Caribsea Super Naturals Aquarium Sand, 20-Pound, Crystal River (for a natural riverbed look. Inert, I know--I want to see how far I can get with just liquid fertilizer to reduce the cognitive load of the tank)

I'll go into tools, chemicals, etc I'm using as they become more relevant. I want to be thorough! Not much to report on equipment just yet, but I will say that the Aqueon Versa is just a bit off dimension-wise, with it just a smidge too short to sit on the lip of the front and back of the tank. I'll be solving that in a future post, but it seems to be a consistent issue across this current manufacturing run. I'm also displeased with how much give it has when pressing down in the middle, and will probably need to devise something to make sure a cat doesn't try sitting on it for too long, if the light isn't enough! It does look aesthetically very nice and low-key, but I can't say I'm overly pleased with it for the price.

Planned Stocking

• 6-8 Sparkling Gourami (Trichopsis pumila). Seem personable/"present" in their environment, and I adore their croaking sounds.
• 10-12 Kuhli Loaches (Pangio semicincta). Little noodles, and I love their sand-sifting behavior.
• ??? (Snails? Shrimp? Fish? Something else?)

I've been testing my tap water, and it's just under 8dKH at 140ppm, and around 8.4pH. I haven't gotten the GH tested, nor is it available on my city's water report that I can see. This is pretty far from a blackwater environment, obviously, hence the quotations in the title...but I'd still like to get it a little closer. This'll be a planted tank, and I want to try just Thrive liquid fertilizer, which I've heard will lower the pH. I'm hoping a consistent dosing of botanicals will too, and maybe the plants themselves. I've also heard that sometimes, tap water left to sit out can get lower in pH due to whatever additives are in your city's water. If I could get it to 7.8, that'd be great. Otherwise, I'm prepared to investigate some RO options...we'll see. I've seen people keep these fish around 8pH before, but on advice from other users in the forum, I'm going to see what I can do to get in the 7 range.

I have written...a lot, so I think I'll leave it at that, for now. Hoping to post my assembly of the shelf and first thoughts, next. Thank you!

 

Those JW thermometers are great, i have one in every tank. The magnets sometimes are a pain as on occasion, one of my cats decides it is a toy. I would suggest after awhile maybe 2 nerites. If female they may lay eggs everywhere, but they do a great job with algae on my tanks, keeping it quite minimal and they come in quite a variety of patterns on the shells, or at least can, which makes for a bit extra eye candy. Also, dont know if you were able to take advantage, the Aquaclear 50s have been on sale on amazon and petco lately for close to half off, so bonus if you got it!

 

Those JW thermometers are great, i have one in every tank. The magnets sometimes are a pain as on occasion, one of my cats decides it is a toy. I would suggest after awhile maybe 2 nerites. If female they may lay eggs everywhere, but they do a great job with algae on my tanks, keeping it quite minimal and they come in quite a variety of patterns on the shells, or at least can, which makes for a bit extra eye candy. Also, dont know if you were able to take advantage, the Aquaclear 50s have been on sale on amazon and petco lately for close to half off, so bonus if you got it!

Thank you! I had a nerite in the past and I liked him a lot, so I'd be happy to have some again. I'm a little worried the sparkling gourami could nip at their antenna, but I'm not sure how common it is...

And yes, I got it on sale! That and the tank. Very happy about that.

 

Post pics if you can! I love blackwater tanks!!!

 

It sounds like an interesting project, but the KH/pH situation is a bit concerning. With KH8 it will be hard to lower pH without using RO water, and you need to take into account total hardness and TDS/conductivity as well as pH. I don't have as much knowledge or experience with Asian fish as I do with South Americans, so would have to do some research to know what are the best or acceptable parameters for the species you have in mind. With that stocking though, and if water parameters are suitable, I would be tempted to add chili rasboras, I think they look very attractive.

 

It sounds like an interesting project, but the KH/pH situation is a bit concerning. With KH8 it will be hard to lower pH without using RO water, and you need to take into account total hardness and TDS/conductivity as well as pH. I don't have as much knowledge or experience with Asian fish as I do with South Americans, so would have to do some research to know what are the best or acceptable parameters for the species you have in mind. With that stocking though, and if water parameters are suitable, I would be tempted to add chili rasboras, I think they look very attractive.

Yeah, I'm considering cutting with RO. As far as I can tell that would give me the ideal values for the fish. I do know people have successfully kept the fish in harder/~8pH water, but I am looking to try to bring it down. Though it's hard to tell sometimes what the true ideal range is for a fish that's been raised or kept for a long period of time in equally hard water...

Chili rasboras are pretty! I don't think I've seen them in person, but the pictures are very vibrant.

 

Yeah, I'm considering cutting with RO. As far as I can tell that would give me the ideal values for the fish. I do know people have successfully kept the fish in harder/~8pH water, but I am looking to try to bring it down. Though it's hard to tell sometimes what the true ideal range is for a fish that's been raised or kept for a long period of time in equally hard water...

Chili rasboras are pretty! I don't think I've seen them in person, but the pictures are very vibrant.

I think it would be a good idea to use partly RO water if at all feasible.

 

I think it would be a good idea to use partly RO water if at all feasible.

Honestly, the main thing making me nervous is the amount of water it wastes. I could buy a few jugs for water changes every week, but that seems unsustainable for me...but most affordable RO systems have a ratio of like 5:1 wastewater to RO water, it seems like. I was specifically looking at the RO Buddie, since it seems highly recommended as a budget option. I don't have many uses for the wastewater, unfortunately. Not that many plants.

Either way, I'll have just a planted tank for a while before adding livestock. So I plan to see how the water looks in there after a few weeks and then if it's not around 7dKH and 7.8pH (I've heard water hardness can change after a while out of the tap?) I'll see how much RO water I need to cut with, if that seems like an acceptable maximum?

...Would making distilled water at home be insane? I think it's a less wasteful process, and I know that distilled water cut with my tap water can get to a good pH/KH level.

 

A small update: my roommate, who I need to be able to update the shelf, has postponed that a couple of days, so no actual tank setup yet.

In the meantime, I've researched some water solutions if my water parameters don't improve, and have a little experiment running where I put some tap water in a cup to see if it sitting out overnight changes the params at all (simulating the fish tank environment). As far as solutions...distilled is fairly cheap (<$100 and useful, but energy-intensive. Also not a lot of gallons can be stored at once, and a bit slow. Not nearly as wasteful, though. There's also a bulk reef supply RO system for a bit $200 that's 1.5 gallons wastewater:1 gallon RO. There's also the ZeroWater pitcher which is a similar situation as the distilled, but less energy-intensive. And lastly, my LFS sells RO water for .6-.8 cents/gallon, but I'm not sure if I can trust it...

Anyway, we'll see what happens with that tap water.

 

Would collecting rain water be a possibility where you live?

 

Would collecting rain water be a possibility where you live?

It is legal where I am, but I'm a little wary of it. People don't recommend it for drinking. It could be an option to supplement store-bought water, but I'm not sure how I could store it without any nasties getting in/fermenting in the Soup. It gets hot here, and the humidity is great for all kinds of nasty stuff.

Once I get the chance, I'll probably buy a gallon from my LFS and test it.

 

Hey Seren,

If you haven't already done so, you can check out MacZ's article about blackwater basics. It's got some really good info. Maybe there's something in it that can help.

Blackwater: Basics and FAQ

 

Hey Seren,

If you haven't already done so, you can check out MacZ's article about blackwater basics. It's got some really good info. Maybe there's something in it that can help.

Blackwater: Basics and FAQ

Thank you! That's a really great resource. I'll admit I'm a bit wary of attempting full blackwater with the whole water issue...It'd probably be ~5 gallons/week for a water change. Not horrible even if I have to get it from the LFS, but homemade, that's a lot of water waste (7.5 gallons wastewater a week?). Though I guess that's not much more than a longer shower. Something to think about. I'm also a bit nervous from the lack of know-how about true 100% blackwater...it'd be a lot harder to diagnose what's going wrong even with guides like these.

 

I totally understand! After using a lot of Indian almond leaves on a regular basis, I was able to get my ph to about a 7.4 or so. Granted, my normal ph is around 7.8, but the IAL do lower the ph a bit. And I've read a lot about peat moss being really good, too, though I have never tried it. Then there's always leaf litter and drift wood that will leach tons of tannins.

There's really a lot that you can do with botanicals.

 

I totally understand! After using a lot of Indian almond leaves on a regular basis, I was able to get my ph to about a 7.4 or so. Granted, my normal ph is around 7.8, but the IAL do lower the ph a bit. And I've read a lot about peat moss being really good, too, though I have never tried it. Then there's always leaf litter and drift wood that will leach tons of tannins.

There's really a lot that you can do with botanicals.

Wow, not bad at all! I've heard some environmental concerns with peat, though I don't think those apply to peat moss? If I remember correctly, way back when I want to say my pH was in the 7 range once it was in the tank, so should be possible for me too. Thank you! Fingers crossed I can get the shelf assembled tonight and the ball rolling.

 

I have seen discussions about putting peat in with filter media and in mesh bags. I think Fluval has some peat granules, and so does Sera. I would do some extra reading about adding organic peat moss to the tank before I attempted that, lol! That sounds like it could be disastrous if done the wrong way....

Good luck! Post some pics when you have everything set up!

 

Alright!!! I have set up the shelf (finally)! Not the tank, though, because I'm exhausted.


Honestly, it feels very sturdy. I was a little worried, as the shelf doesn't fit the fish tank exactly...but it's a very sturdy feeling particle board. I will be putting a plastic sheet underneath the fish tank to prevent it from getting wet, and probably a towel for wiping up spills around the tank. There IS a cross-beam under the shelf you can't see, and the shelf is rated for 1000 lbs...though the cross beam isn't exactly under the tank's edge. I also situated the tank more towards the back vs the center, so more of its weight would be on the outer metal beams of the shelf than not, and the weight would pull the shelf towards the wall rather than forward. I did put a lot of my weight on the shelf with no issue as far as I could tell, though. I'll be watching it closely, either way, but I'm optimistic.

Onto the more baffling part of this post: the water test! So, these are the results after I let the water sit out overnight...



The KH test (left) turned yellow in 2-3 drops including the first drop, and the gH test (right) turned green in 11 drops total, including the first drop. And then I'd say in person the pH looks to be a 7.7 or so.

Which is...what??? The KH is so low! My utility's website says 140 ppm, but this is saying 2-3dKH? As you can see I did the test 3 times, even once straight from the tap, and all the same. It's really baffling. This is an old home we're renting, so all I can think of is that maybe there's some kind of water softener system or something that we're not aware of? Or that the test kit I got was a dud.

I'm not really sure how to take this, to be honest. These results seem really wacky...2dKH, 11dGH, and a 7.7 pH. With some botanicals, I guess that'd be better for the fish I'm keeping without RO water than what I thought? But I think the GH should be much lower for them, right? And I believe 2dKH is where keeping pH stable gets difficult...gah. Any insight would be appreciated, this was not what I expected at all. Maybe I should get a TDS meter too?

 

Yes a TDS meter would be useful. With the low KH it should theoretically be (slightly) easier to reduce the pH using leaf litter etc. In the end though a low TDS might be more important than a low pH, unless trying to breed specialist blackwater species.

I am also puzzled about such things as I have even lower KH (0-1) and regularly use leaf litter in two of my tanks, but have never really managed to lower the pH, it stays the same as from the tap (6.6-6.8) - assuming the tests are accurate, I believe they are less accurate below KH2. I also have low GH (1-2) and very low TDS. I keep soft water fish and they seem to do well on the whole.

 

Yes a TDS meter would be useful. With the low KH it should theoretically be (slightly) easier to reduce the pH using leaf litter etc. In the end though a low TDS might be more important than a low pH, unless trying to breed specialist blackwater species.

I am also puzzled about such things as I have even lower KH (0-1) and regularly use leaf litter in two of my tanks, but have never really managed to lower the pH, it stays the same as from the tap (6.6-6.8) - assuming the tests are accurate, I believe they are less accurate below KH2. I also have low GH (1-2) and very low TDS. I keep soft water fish and they seem to do well on the whole.

The tap pH at least checks out with what I was getting in a different part of the same city, if I remember right...the high GH definitely concerns me, though. In that case, I don't think cutting with RO would work without making the KH way too low.

 

Why would it matter if KH is 0? Many people use only RO water in blackwater tanks. I believe the humic substances work as a buffer to prevent pH fluctuations. And I have not experienced any issues having a KH of close to 0.

 

Why would it matter if KH is 0? Many people use only RO water in blackwater tanks. I believe the humic substances work as a buffer to prevent pH fluctuations. And I have not experienced any issues having a KH of close to 0.

Ah, I didn't realize the humic substances could prevent pH fluctuations...though this is putting me towards a true blackwater tank. Scary, haha. Do you think those effects would go away if the GH were 5, so cutting with 1/2 RO water?

Sorry for all the questions. As much as I've been researching things, specifics on GH and KH are hard to find, and I don't want to screw up with the fish.

 

Ah, I didn't realize the humic substances could prevent pH fluctuations...though this is putting me towards a true blackwater tank. Scary, haha. Do you think those effects would go away if the GH were 5, so cutting with 1/2 RO water?

Sorry for all the questions. As much as I've been researching things, specifics on GH and KH are hard to find, and I don't want to screw up with the fish.

I think there would not be any problems doing 50% RO.

 

Alright, fish tank is up and running! With a couple of issues...but they should clear themselves up soon.



Here's the hardscape--I'm very happy with it! That's one big chunk of "raw" Malaysian driftwood, and then two smaller pieces of Top Fin Mopani driftwood. Also a couple little hunk of dragon stones ready to help anchor plants down. And then here it was set up with some plants (I'll be getting more in the future and letting these grow before I even think about getting sparkling gourami). Right now, it's a big anubias in the back right, a good chunk of melon sword in the back left, 3 crypts across the front, and 2 chunks of trident java fern across the font. Just what my LFS had, really! I'm hoping that the melon sword will get enough light. I did place it where floating plants won't be established (right in front of the filter outtake), so I think that may be enough. In the end I'm hoping for some valisneria to fill in the empty areas/break sightlines, dwarf hair grass for some visual appeal, and then some frogbit or an equivalent floater all across the top.




And then, uh....




Oh no. Yeah, I thought that driftwood would be okay since it said it was ready to just put in the tank, but it absolutely was not, and floated to the top. Luckily the other pre-treated one (right) was fine, and the left one I did boil to waterlog it and get rid of any possible bacteria since it was a less processed piece of driftwood.

I also messed up a lot of the scape when I was pouring water...getting it into the tank at this height is very difficult for me, so I'm going to pick up a pond pump from Harbor Freight to make it easier in the future, so I don't have to slowly fill the tank with a tupperware container again. It was also enough of a pain I ended up just putting the water conditioner (Seachem Prime) in at the end, so hopefully the plants don't mind that too much.

Lastly, the filter is weirdly loud...it makes this slight grinding noise I can hear from the next room. New out of box, so no clue why. It's not the lid rattling, and I suspect it's the impeller...I might try wrapping something to dampen sound around the base of the filter, or if it really bothers me I'll order a replacement impeller and see if that helps. Kind of a bummer though, quality control would be better you'd think.

On the other hand, this morning, the floating driftwood has gotten a lot better! It's really just one corner that still floats, so I've wedged that next to the biggest piece of driftwood to make sure it takes in water. By tomorrow I should be able to actually fix the scape up.




As you can see, I also went ahead and added a prefilter sponge to my filter, adjusted the heater, and I cut the slots out of the tank lid for the filter + heater instead of just propping it on top of them...I also added Tetra SafeStart and a pump of Thrive to get things going, along with a sprinkle of fish food. I'm not going to worry too much about my water params until things get a little more established. And as for tannins...I may have been a bit too tired yesterday to bother replacing the charcoal in the filter OTL. I'll get those tannins back eventually. See you tomorrow (hopefully!)

 

Driftwood update: Still not sunk It's just one little corner holding out, the rest sinks fine.

 

A bit of a funny story. I boiled it a ton today, no dice. Still floated. So I left it while I went to pick up some (very affordable, thank you local plant man!!!!) plants, and when I got back, I poked at it to remove it so I could get the plants in and...???? It's juuuuust sunk enough that the cube decoration holds it down!

I'll admit, some of these it was very hard to get the roots in the substrate. I couldn't tell where plant ended and roots began sometimes, and i couldnt get ALL of their roots under a lot of the time...so a bit messy. We'll see how well they do. Hopefully I didn't bury any important roots! This is some valisneria (I forgot what kind...might have started with a C? The tall "grass), dwarf sagittaria, and uh. Two other things, and a floater. I forgot what their names were, sorry plant man! They're all sort of "grass" like though. Maybe I overdid it on the grass and should've gotten some more broad-leafed options? Either way, here's the scape for now!




Any critiques? I think as of now it's suitable for the loaches. I'm hoping once this grows out a bit, and the top is covered in floaters, maybe it'll be enough for 6-8 sparkling gourami? Not sure if the coverage will be enough though. Other than that, hopefully it's aesthetically pleasing...I like to think I have a good eye for this kind of thing, but I really struggled with knowing where to put everything!

 

Nice! The two bushy ones at the front are java ferns so should be attached to the wood rather than planted in the substrate (one of them might be its difficult to tell). It should look really good once the plants are established.

 

Nice! The two bushy ones at the front are java ferns so should be attached to the wood rather than planted in the substrate (one of them might be its difficult to tell). It should look really good once the plants are established.

Yup, those aren't planted. The big bushy one just has some of its roots pinned by a rock,and the other is iust kind of wedged into the wood And thank you!

 

Alright! This log is really more for my purposes, since I'm not sure how useful it is to anyone else...but I tested my water today to see what's going on.

pH was a cool 6.5, I'm assuming from my driftwood. So suitable for the fish I want to keep already.

kH was 2-3 again, all the same there.

gH was 7, pretty startlingly lower! I'm not sure if that's because of the plants/driftwood/ferts, maybe because I filled my tank with the spigot outside? That's probably still higher than idel for kuhlis, but it is in the range I've seen people keep them at...and that means less RO water for me.

Then ammonia was .5-1ppm and nitrites 0...didn't bother testing nitrates today because I ran out of test tubes. I'll cool it with the fish food for now, doesn't look like the bacteria are really establishing themselves yet.

I've also ordered some root tabs. I trust plant guy with my life, and he said that just liquid ferts, even with a layer of sand, weren't enough for some swords and vallisneria he had...and my melon sword (submerged in store) seems to be struggling just a smidge.

 

FINALLY got the root tabs in! I've placed a few around those struggling/needy plants I mentioned. Today was water change day, but it was a difficult day, so I'll see if I can't do it in the morning. I got a $15 pond pump to help out.

I also got my TDS meter...168 TDS! Not unexpected, but definitely pretty high. I wonder how much of that is from some loose leaves or even the tannins.

 

I also got my TDS meter...168 TDS! Not unexpected, but definitely pretty high. I wonder how much of that is from some loose leaves or even the tannins.

Maybe a little but I don't think very much in my experience. What does your tap water read? And are you using 50%RO?

 

Maybe a little but I don't think very much in my experience. What does your tap water read? And are you using 50%RO?

Tap is just under 200 TDS. Right now, I'm actually using full tap water. I wanted to see how my parameters looked with just tap in the tank with plants + ferts + etc before cutting with RO.

 

So the tap water has a higher TDS than the tank water, even thought you are using fertilisers? That seems odd.

 

So the tap water has a higher TDS than the tank water, even thought you are using fertilisers? That seems odd.

Yeah, it is...I did top off with distilled water, which could've done it? But the total amount of distilled water I added was less than a gallon.

 

Yeah, it is...I did top off with distilled water, which could've done it? But the total amount of distilled water I added was less than a gallon.

It must have been that though...

 

Yeah, it is...I did top off with distilled water, which could've done it? But the total amount of distilled water I added was less than a gallon.

Fair enough. I won't worry about it too much, I suppose.

Now I just need to wait for it to cycle. OTL. I know cycling is slower at lower pHs but I've been at a little over 1ppm ammonia no matter what for days, haha. I guess I'll just be looking for when the ammonia starts decreasing on its own without water changes.

I'll probably also hit up the LFS for some RO water asap so I can go ahead and get the hardness where I want it. I'll go a little slowly, 25% at the next water change, and depending on how levels look, 50% at the one after that, in order not to disturb plants/bacteria/my pest snails too much.

 

Still no sign of a cycle forming. Even if my end goal is a low pH low hardness tank, should I be raising those in order to cycle? It's consistently at .5-1ppm regardless of whether or not I add fish food after a water change. I do have a population of snails in there.

 

My method of doing literally nothing except for watching the snails bumble around and occasionally tossing some fish food in has succeeded! I've got 0 ammonia. I may stress test before getting any fish, though.

I will say though, I've gotten attached to the snails. Hopefully the water will be hard enough to sustain them at the end of the day. Still haven't gotten the RO water mixture in there, though. That will probably be an experiment for this weekend.

 

I have plenty of snails in very soft water, but their shells go white.

 

I have plenty of snails in very soft water, but their shells go white.

Good to know that they at least won't all die, though that's a shame. Genuinely think my bladder snail's shell is lovely. Has anyone ever tried dosing calcium in soft water? I'm sure it'd help the snails, but I don't know if it'd hurt the loaches or not...though I already have liquid ferts, so there'll be some stuff floating around in the water either way.

 

You’d be better off feeding calcium rich vegetables to help the shells rather than trying to dose the water column.

Also for leaf litter ( you asked higher up ) Indian almond leaves are widely available to buy and do release a lot of tannins. If you’re close to a none polluted area like woodland you can collect your own leaves ( any hard wood leaves, oak is very popular ) although it’s usually better to do this in autumn when they drop them. Magnolia leaves are another great choice as are seed pods and alder cones. I personally like the long and longevity of Jack fruit leaves but they aren’t the cheapest. They may not alter your pH too much but if you do end up cutting with ro and have a kh of 0 then yes they will.

 

You’d be better off feeding calcium rich vegetables to help the shells rather than trying to dose the water column.

Also for leaf litter ( you asked higher up ) Indian almond leaves are widely available to buy and do release a lot of tannins. If you’re close to a none polluted area like woodland you can collect your own leaves ( any hard wood leaves, oak is very popular ) although it’s usually better to do this in autumn when they drop them. Magnolia leaves are another great choice as are seed pods and alder cones. I personally like the long and longevity of Jack fruit leaves but they aren’t the cheapest. They may not alter your pH too much but if you do end up cutting with ro and have a kh of 0 then yes they will.

I already have a crazy low kH without RO, and I'm at pH 6.4 right now, which I'm not sure I want to make much lower. So maybe I should stay away from botanicals for now, though I kind of wish they sold fake leaf litter. I do have natural woodland nearby but I don't really trust there not to be parasites, chemicals, etc. Thank you for the overview!

 

I'm going to be honest, this thread is for me more than anyone else, but a very belated update...I do talk about some deaths, so not all roses.

I was just waiting for kuhli loaches for quite some time as I let the tank settle, and about a month ago, they were finally in stock at my (admittedly not amazing) LFS. Unfortunately, I got what I suspect to be a bad batch; only 3-4 survived out of 8. My snails dismantled a deceased fish before I got the chance to see if it was from the first or second batch; this was fascinating but also incredibly disturbing for me and I had to have my roommate fish out the spine. Anyway, the LFS also did not take the kuhlis out of the bag due to difficulty netting them, and there were some dead loaches in the bag with the others. I regret going through my purchase that day, since that seems like it would poison the water quickly.

I didn't drip acclimate, but I did float the bag and pour some tank water in every 10 minutes until it was about 50/50 fish store and tank water before netting them and releasing. One was essentially dead on arrival, wasn't doing too hot at the store either. One had a very dramatic bout of rapid activity and difficulty swimming before dying...I suspect he may have suffered some kind of trauma in the transfer (maybe from a corner of the fish bag being squashed, or regrettably my difficulty netting them), or possibly had a parasite of some kind. The others died without an apparent cause, though I suspect one was stress from being the only giant kuhli of the group (probably). I talk about it casually here, but I had a hard time dealing with the bodies. I don't think it was really my water that did it, at least--the deaths were all before my tank parameters started going strange.

My tank had a little mini crash. In hindsight, I should have been feeding the tank throughout this time to get it used to the increased bioload the kuhli's food would bring; I overestimated how much the snails would do for me. I was monitoring the water very closely, though, and the ammonia level never rose to dangerous levels as I always did a water change ASAP. The worst of it was .5, which to my understanding is getting to a point it will be bad, but not super toxic in <7pH. By this point, it seems to have stabilized. I could probably go longer than a week before doing my 25% water change, but I think it keeps the tank healthier.

After about a week, I decided to try my luck again. I'd been to the LFS for some RO water (I use up around 2.5 gallons every week for my water change) and saw that their latest batch of kuhlis looked much better and well-cared for. They had a plant in the bag that seemed to calm them down. So I got 4 more when I had a free day (regrettably, when they had a new bag without a plant) and did the same acclimation process. So far, 3-4 of them are alive. Again, the dismantled loach issue when it comes to counting. But I have a total of 7 right now. I do want more, but I'm a little worried the footprint of the 20 is too low for 10 loaches. Any thoughts?

The loaches have been very shy throughout this process, but more and more throughout this past week I've been seeing the loaches come out for brief periods of time. They usually get startled and hide again if I walk too closely to the tank, but I'm just happy to see them on occasion. They're extremely cute. One is big and fat and out the most; he's really grown since I first got him. I picked up some plants locally and ordered some more online to hopefully add more hiding areas throughout the tank. I suspect the driftwood mass in the center is almost TOO good of a hiding place, and the vegetation too sparse outside it, so they're just in there all the time.

I also finally got to the point where I had to remove some snails. Luckily someone local wanted them, but wow. These snails are just breeding constantly. I removed around 20, and it definitely made a dent, but there's still probably 20 in there. It doesn't help that the loaches are still too shy to beat them to eating all the food, though the problem was definitely worse a few weeks ago.

The snails' shell health got put on hold for a while, since none had any alarming shell deterioration, but I'm going to try some defrosted edamame tomorrow when I feed the loaches bloodworms. I also want to add some leaf litter to the tank to encourage the kuhli's behavior, but I'm honestly a little worried about how low the pH could dip from them with the low kH. I might test it out in a gallon jug of old tank water first. My alternative idea was to get some silk plants and snip off the leaves for permanent leaf litter, haha.

I have pivoted a bit on my planned stocking...initially, I wanted sparkling gourami, and I still do, but I'm not convinced they would be good for the kuhlis. They're so shy, and every account of sparkling gourami I can find seems to indicate it's a 50/50 they're super shy or fight each other to death constantly. So either I have a tank of exclusively extremely shy fish, or I have to worry about the sparklers hurting each other, which I'm not sure I'm prepared to deal with. I'm now looking at lambchop rasboras, probably a school of 10 or 12. They seem peaceful, they're pretty, and I'm hoping they can act as a bit of a "hey! no predators are here!" sign for the kuhlis. I also have eyed crystal red shrimp as an option, but I'm not sure there's enough parameter overlap between the three, and I'm worried the bottom of the tank would be too busy.

I think that's pretty much everything. My life also got pretty hectic for a while, and this week has been possibly the longest in my life. I'm really looking forward to those plants coming in, though.

Oh, it's silly, but I did name the loaches after the 7 deadly sins (first batch) and 7 virtues (second batch). This is because I named my first snail Peter (after Spiderman) and then the second Paul, because I thought it'd be funny. And then the third Goliath, because it was the biggest...and it got out of hand from there. The second batch hasn't all been named, because I only name them when I find some identifier and they're still not out all that much. But right now, I have Gluttony (my big boy who's out the most!), Greed and Sloth (usually come out together, very slight differences in pattern), Wrath (? the smallest and a candidate for Schrodinger's loach re: snail dismantling), Patience (loves just hanging on the edge of a suction cup and a piece of my driftwood for hours), and 2-3 unnamed guys from the new batch.

Updated tank pic is below, awaiting some re-scaping with the plants.

 

Added fake silk leaves (tugged off of some fake aquarium plants) to the aquarium for fear of causing a huge pH swing with real ones, and luckily, the kuhlis love it! Definitely looks artificial, but I don't mind it as much as I thought I would. They also sank no problem, which I didn't expect. I'll look into whether I can maybe slowly replace them with real leaves in the future, but for now, looks like me and the loaches are both happy.

I also added a black background with some cheap vinyl, and honestly, I'm not sure how much I like it! Maybe with some more plant growth in the back? I'll leave it for now, but I might consider a frosted look in the future for more "depth". I like that it hides my equipment, but it basically highlights my big ugly filter, haha.

 

Day 10 of waiting for plants to arrive. OTL

I ordered a bunch of plants but I guess they were out of stock of one of the ones I requested? So now I have to wait...I've never agonized this much over a shipment. I just want my kuhlis to have more plants ;_;

In the meantime I've just been browsing forums and came across Apistogramma borelli. Really lovely fish. Part of me was like "...maybe I could fit them in?" but I'm not sure. I have 7 kuhli loaches now, and was already scared off of sparkling gourami from conflicting accounts of their aggression. And now I'm pretty attached to having a school of lambchop rasbora. I don't know that trying to add a "centerpiece" is a good idea, even if they're really pretty...especially since I believe Apistogramma can also be aggressive when breeding, like sparkling gourami. Also, part of me wants to add a couple more loaches to round out their numbers to 10. I'd be happy with a shoal of 7, but every time I order them I get different subspecies, so the more I have theoretically the happier everyone would be...I know kuhlis are comparatively large fish for a 10 gallon though. Does them liking to squeeze together cancel that out?

Honestly, I'd be willing to keep multiple tanks, but the fish are a little uh. Hush hush in my rental. I should've gotten explicit permission before getting the tank but a few things got mixed up in my brain and I forgot to, so! I could still get permission now, but if they say no I wouldn't have the "oops I didn't realize" excuse and I really don't want to be put in the position of rehoming my fish. Very tenuous situation. Anyway, just one tank allowed for me for now. (I live in a very hands-off rental where the landlord doesn't seem to care much about anything, but the rental management company does have a scary contract)

 

Confirmed my plants will arrive next week! I did get some more plants in the meantime, because I have a problem, but I've just tossed them into my tank for now. So no pictures; it's a bit of a mess.

That said, I'm thinking about how I want the rescape to go next week. I've got valisneria, a couple different kinds of crypts (brown, green, and tall stemmy green?), some java fern, some large and small anubias (coffeefolia, I think just a large normal anubias, and nana), a tiger lotus, dwarf sag, maybe a bit of dwarf hairgrass left (didn't do well in my tank for some reason), and some rotala. And a massive "octopus" plant. So...easy to make look like a mess, I think. Do you all tend to group similar plants together, or spread them throughout the tank?