"The Tint"

[Tannin Aquatics]

This is our first Tannin promotional video, in what we hope to be  along series of high-quality videos for our customers and fans to enjoy! Filmed by my good friend, well-known aquascaper, photographer/videographer Johnny Ciotti, we call this one "The Tint", and it basically serves as an "aesthetic introduction" to the vibe, feel, and values of Tannin Aquatics and what we are trying to convey.

Thought it might be a nice way to kick off the weekend here.

Hope you enjoy!

Scott

P.S.- Couldn't effectively upload the video directly to the site, so the link will take you to our "Inspiration Page", where it, and other cool stuff resides! Sorry for the confusion.

 

[Soothing Shrimp]

 

 

If you copy your youtube url of your vid and paste it in the post, it willautomatically connect to your vid.

[Tannin Aquatics]

That's a cool tank by Jeff Senske of Aquarium Design Group, featuring our aquatic botanicals! And our video is at the bottom of the page...and how did you get it to imbed?LOL  I gave up!

 

Scott

[Soothing Shrimp]

This one?  Just copy the youtube url, and paste it in the post.

 

[Tannin Aquatics]

22 minutes ago, Soothing Shrimp said:

This one?  Just copy the youtube url, and paste it in the post.

 

Hug...      

 

Thanks! Figured it would be THAT easy! LOL

 

[Soothing Shrimp]

I'll take all the hugs I can get!

[Vpier]

I Notice your using an inert substrate. As you probably know for caridina shrimps we use an active substrate as a buffering agent to keep the water soft.  Will the amount of leaves and pods you have in those tanks buffer the water and keep it soft? If so, how would someone new to the concept of botanicals know how much materials to use, how often to replace it for whatever size tank. Or should we keep using an active substrate plus a few botaincals?

[Tannin Aquatics]

Very good question. And I think that with an "active" substrate that's more acidic in nature, you'd be inclined to use LESS materials, mainly leaves, to influence the hardness and pH. In my experience, the "harder" pods and such tend to impart less pH-influence into the water than do items like leaves, etc. As a believer in RO/DI water for my source water, like many hobbyists, I tend to use more "inert" substrates in my fish systems, and things like ADA Amazonia, etc. in most shrimp tanks. I've even played around with concept tanks with all leaf litter substrates and gotten pH readings around 5.4 and less (Ph meters are great!) and very soft water. Obviously not an environment for all animals! In my fish tanks, I can use the "inert" substrate with botanicals and, along with leaves steeping in my makeup water containers, still achieve a stable pH of around 6.8.- but it requires more monitoring and attention. So, all things being equal, I would still recommend an active substrate in a shrimp system to ensure stability in pH, with botanicals for "top off" and aesthetics.

As far as use of botanicals is concerned, as mentioned in previous posts- they can influence pH, but HOW much is dependant upon so many variables (such as the source water, substrate, size of the tank, the botanicals themselves,etc., etc.) that to make generalized recommendations is virtually impossible (if not, a bit irresponsible on my part!). This is why I'm a huge fan of going VERY lightly/slowly with these materials and, well- EXPERIMENTING with them to get a feel for what works of the individual, and what the impact can be on the water chemistry. We're still in a very early stage of opening up to the use of materials other than the "tried and true" Catappa and Guava leaves, particularly with shrimp- which is both fun and interesting to me.

I see all sorts of botanical type items, such as Hazel, Nettles, etc being offered up as food and "enrichment" sources, but I think these influence water chemistry as well, and I'm pretty sure no one has definitely figured out "X" ounces per gallon to influence Kh and pH by "X" points for almost anything we use, so I realize that seeing some of the stuff we're talking about for the first time raises both eyebrows and concern, which I would wholeheartedly agree with. A sense of adventure and experimentation is definitely recommended...again...going slow and preparing botanicals before use is very important.  And of course, nothing here is a "Holy Grail" that will replace anything we're already doing- these items just add to our "arsenal" of capabilities and possibilities, IMHO. I think relying on the substrates and source water to "set" pH and hardness- for now- is the responsible, stable, and more appropriate way to influence these parameters in shrimp tanks. Botanicals should be seen as an additional, yet not primary influence, much the way we use "mineral stones" in shrimp systems...at least until more hobbyists are familiar with what they are doing in shrimp systems.

Just as a funny aside, coming from the reef side of the hobby, we were always concerned about the buffering capacity of water and the substrate, Ca reactor, etc., so it's always kind of funny for me to reconcile that we're concerned about a sort of an opposite issue with shrimps!

Thanks again for your input and important thoughts/points- all useful as we move forward together!

Scott

[Vpier]

I like this article. My expertise is African cichlids so botanials/leaves is ver ynew to me and your site is helping a lot. Cichlids are easy, just add some crushed coral or coral sand some epsom salt and your good to go.