Indian Almond Leaves (Catappa / Ketapang) for sale at Tyne Valley Aquatics

[AwesomeAssassin1000]

can u use any other type of leaves and also i have heard they release tannints like what driftwood does if so how do i stop them from being released into my tank

[pondguru]

You could soak them overnight in a bucket of tank water then repeat the process the next night. Most of the colour comes out in the first couple of days so the staining should be minimal if pre-soaked to remove the colouring agents. Tannin color will be removed by carbon if you have it in your filter or by the regular weekly water changes. Tannins are important for many species of fish health and plant growth so I like to see a bit of staining myself.

[Gritzaable]

Just recieved my leaves thank you verry much :) i'll be sure to buy more of you if ever needed.

[pondguru]

No worries, man. Glad they didn't get lost.

[Gritzaable]

i've just completed an order from you for £3.99 for 10x almond leaves, my paypal is gritza@live.co.uk, just wondering how long it will take to arrive? i'm in the Uk

[pondguru]

Thanks, man. I will post on monday and you should get them tues / wed.

[Gritzaable]

@pondguru just wondering tomorrow i will be out, so do i need to be there to collect the package? if you sent it today that is

[pondguru]

It should fit through the letterbox unless the postie is feeling awkward so no worries there.

[Gritzaable]

@pondguru the leaves dint arive today :(

[pondguru]

Sending second class is a strange one. Sometimes they arrive next day, other times they take the stated 3-4 days. I've never had a lost package in the UK so they will be on their way (provided the Post office sent them on the day I took them up - I take a load of packages up in one go and just leave them for them to post, paying for them on my next visit)

[tropix579]

just received mine from your shop. great quality the fish love them! much bigger than i expected. i think my platy will get better.

[pondguru]

They do range in size, but since I have lots of new stock to go at they are generally large at present. If ever they are a bit on the small side, I will put extra leaves in so you'll always get good value.

[tropix579]

@pondguru yep they are about half and a4 peice of paper!

[aznlilboiz]

can i cut it into smaller pieces and drop them into the tank?

[pondguru]

I always leave them whole, but cutting them up will not affect their effective water conditioning properties.

[JUNAID187]

Would Malaysian trumpet snails benefit from these ?

[pondguru]

I'm not too sure as they generally don't stay in the tanks with the larger snails in our shop. I'll give that a try.

The shrimps really like them so they must be getting something beneficial from them I suppose.

[asiandude666]

@JUNAID187 all snail and shrimp love this stuff

[asiandude666]

almond leave ...good stuff! I have alot that i can't even use it all

[Gritzaable]

i have a community tank with 1 betta i have these black small gravel however should it be better for me to get a sand substrate?

[pondguru]

For tropicals I would always recommend sand over gravel, unless you have a tank of large cichlids and an undergravel filter.

[Gritzaable]

@pondguru okay thankyou i should change it than :P but does it do anny heavy damage if i do?

[pondguru]

Any disruption to the tank isn't ideal but the long term benefit of sand over gravel is worth the work.

[Gritzaable]

@pondguru Thank you :) and one more question, my bleeding heart tetras were mating the other day 4-5 days ago and i saw them spawning eggs which dropped down into the gravel will these eggs hatch? and if they do will the fry get eaten by other fishes?

[pondguru]

99.999% will get eaten or not hatch. For spawning tetras / danios, some people have them in a tank with loads of marbles in the bottom so the eggs will fall under the marbles and not be eaten by the adults.Once spawning has taken place, the adults are removed. An apple snail or two will produce waste to feed infusoria which will in turn feed the tiny fry.

[Gritzaable]

@pondguru ah right hah i was all excited about seeing tiny fry :P but ohwell maybe in the future when im more experience in fish keeping :)

[vett3l0l]

@pondguru sand gets ugly faster though

[pondguru]

Algae tends not to grow on sand like it can do on gravel. Our central bank of tanks are all sand and they are immaculate compared to the tanks down each side of the shop which all have under gravel filters. May be because we've moved all the corydoras and most of the loaches onto sand as they can't feed properly in the gravel. They do a good job of turning over the sand.

We can't have sand in about 70 of our tanks as they are under gravel systems at present. Efficient for the large fish.

[mbezik]

i cant say enough good things about almond leaves!

Ive been using them in my south american tanks since i first learned about them on a visit to tyne valley aquatics and the fish seem to love the effect they have on the water

[pondguru]

Believe it or not it has taken nearly 6 months to get our delivery from indonesa so the message to all wanting them would probably be buy local / from Uk supplier in small amounts or risk having the fish die of old age before the leaves arrive.....

lol

[1Filmproducer]

nice video, im tempted :), I presume there ok with all community tanks with tetras and gouramis?

[superfunny1972]

Hi, Firstly let me thank you for posting all these videos,i really enjoy them. Secondly,i'm rather confused,if it kills bacteria what happens to the "good" bacteria wich decompose amonia?

Thanks (sorry for my English, I'm Romanian living in Belgium)

[aopdjasldksa]

@superfunny1972 Nothing happens to beneficial bacteria.

[pondguru]

No worries on the beneficial bacteria.The anti bacterial action seems to target 'bad' bacteria as we've never noticed a deterioration in water quality using almond leaves.