How long does it take for the tannins to appear in my tank?

[Blackwater guru]

I have a fish tank that I setup during early january with 10 wild caught cardinal tetras along with 4 corydoras duplicareus catfish. Yesterday I also added a couple of marbled hatchetfish and 4 octocinclus catfish.

My main goal here is to turn this 140 liter tank into a tropical blackwater setup although I am using asian plants that can still thrive under low lightning and lower ph values along with pieces of driftwood and floating plants.

I recently added these oak leaves earlier today as seen in the image above me but I have yet to see any release of the tannins I am looking for.

My question here is , how long will it take before the tannins start to show up in my tank? because I have waited for several hours .

 

[CryptFan]

I will take several days or longer

 

[Retired Viking]

Once you have completed your tank please post a picture or two. I am interested in black water setups. I have a tetra tank (neon, ember, glow light.

 

[Byron]

You may never see tannins here, without more leaves. Wood does release tannins, but this is usually not significant. Dried leaves will release more, but it takes a lot of leaves. I have had leaves in a few tanks at the same time over the last years, and the only one that really became noticeable was the 10g that had maybee 20-30 oak leaves. This was my spawning tank for pygmy cories and the grow-out for Farlowella vitatta fry, both of which need leaves for infusoria, so I stuffed them in. When I siphoned out a 3-gallon (light coloured) bucket of water during the water change it was easy to see the darker water by comparison.

 

[Naughts]

You could use rooibos tea for instant colour.

 

[Blackwater guru]

I have now added a few more oak leaves to the aquarium but not too many at once just to be on the safe side.

The ones I added today are floating which is quite normal and eventually they will settle down on the aquarium substrate where they should eventually release the tannins.

 

[Tttay89]

I had 4 pieces of drift wood and 3 cattapa leaves in my old 80 litre and didn't even notice any difference in the tank, apart from when it come to water change time... The water looked like gravy in the bucket hah

 

[Byron]

So long as they are collected from a safe environment (away from any industry, pesticides, fertilizers, etc), the oak leaves will pose no issues in your aquarium. I earlier mentioned my 10g, here is one photo I tracked down from 2013 when I had the spawning/fry and kept the oak leaves. It was not a display tank, so I just stuck them in and they sank and fish grazed them and grew more rapidly than without leaves; the water was noticeably amber in the bucket.

 

[Blackwater guru]

So long as they are collected from a safe environment (away from any industry, pesticides, fertilizers, etc), the oak leaves will pose no issues in your aquarium. I earlier mentioned my 10g, here is one photo I tracked down from 2013 when I had the spawning/fry and kept the oak leaves. It was not a display tank, so I just stuck them in and they sank and fish grazed them and grew more rapidly than without leaves; the water was noticeably amber in the bucket.

I collected them from a nearby oak tree in the swedish countryside where I live and after I collected them I washed them under the kitchen sink letting the leaves dry for a bit before adding them.

I go to a boarding school in another region , while I am gone my dad takes care of the aquarium by feeding them frozen mosquito larvae along with flake foods , this also involves cleaning the glass from algae and doing waterchanges when needed .

I come home once every two weeks so that is when I will hopefully be able to see the result and how much of the tannins that have been released.

I think I have like 7 to 8 leaves there currently so I have high hopes that I will make the water very dark like that of black coffee although I can always add more if needed if I am unsatisfied.

 

[Fishmanic]

my 35 gallon hex has a ph of 7.6 and a hardness of 175. So I have started adding tannins via Indian Almond leaves as I have several neon tetras in the tank which like softer water and a lower ph. I add them directly to the tank as well as soaking them in boiling water, waiting a day, and then adding the water to the tank. Boiling the leaves in a container of water brings out the tannins more quickly.I also do this for my 5 gallon Beta tank.