29 Gallon Dwarf Cichlid Tank

There are a few of the biotope substrates available like Eco complete and Seachem where the substrates contain Flourite which is good for plants and usually has clay within them.. Another good plant species would be cryptocoryne wendtii i love this plant and in my opinion is far better than Amazon swords..

I haven't personally used cat litter but i hear it is great for planted aquariums just make sure you get the non scented and 100% clay cat litter with no chemicals, make sure you use it as a first layer and then place the intended gravel over it..
 
I'm trying to only use plants native to the Amazon area, so crypts won't work. I'll check out the kitty litter idea, thanks. What are some smaller, South American plants? I think I'll include one or two Swords but I also want something a little smaller (not groundcover).
 
I think I'll just have Swords planted and I'll have a few Frogbits (Limnobium laevigatum) floating on the surface. For my substrate I will use a layer of kitty litter (all clay) with fine gravel on top. There will be a cloth peat-moss bag added to the filter to add tannin to the water as well as to keep it soft and acidic.
 
I'm going to use some peat moss I think because my water is a bit basic and peat will lower the PH. Leaves look great but I'm worried about them rotting.
 
Also, I was doing some preliminary water testing, and my carbonate hardness is fine, my PH is high but peat moss will lower it, but my general hardness was really high. Is there any way to fix this or should I buy half filtered water for my tank?
 
The decay of the leaves is where the tannins come from. Won't hurt anything in your tank, aside from water clarity. If you're going to have anything tiny in there, it also creates some microorganisms that can be food.

Also, driftwood (hardwoods like mopani and the like) will lower your pH. The pH of my tap is 8.2. In my 55, last time I checked it was 7.4, with three pieces of driftwood. I've since moved one piece to my invert 10, and that has a pH of 7.8.
 
if your water is not appropriate, look for fish that are locally bred and already acclimated to hard water otherwise I strongly recommend you start with at least some mix of RO or bottled and slowly acclimate them through periodic water changes.
 
Thanks for the advice. Will oak leaves work in the aquarium? There are oaks in the Amazon. And should I filter with peat moss in addition to having driftwood/leaves? I don't mind the tea colored water since this is a biotope tank anyway.
 
Oak leaves will work in the aquarium.. however, there is not much distribution of Oak in South America and none may actually show up in the Amazonian areas.

but it would be true to form to run a biotope tank (SA) with Oak leaves..
 
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