dry leaves on lawn as deco?

[nomad92]

i thinking of sometihng different.. there are tons of dried leaves on my lawn.. and was tihnking.. why not use them as the scape? mayb as foreground, or leave on the ground thruout the entire tank with a piece or two of driftwood..

has this been done b4? i need some opinions about the microorganisms on the leaves.. it might be harmful to my fishes rite? what if i dry them out really well? or this is just too risky? :help:

 

[kr0nic]

Id imagine they would decompose very quickly and cloud your water.

 

[J double R]

it would be very messy and as mentioned above, they would decompose faster than you could get them.

 

[nomad92]

decompose? dried leaves wud decompose in water? mmm my girlfriend use to dry up flowers and then keep them in a box or seomthing... it doesnt decompoes tho.. mmm

 

[Smitti]

but she is not adding water to them...

 

[Rob0521]

I wouldn't put them in your water but I bet you could make an awesome backround for your tank out of the leaves

 

[ZSandmann]

Ever walked barefoot in a lake? That muck at the bottom is rotten leaves.

 

[J double R]

but she is not adding water to them...

decompose? dried leaves wud decompose in water? mmm my girlfriend use to dry up flowers and then keep them in a box or seomthing... it doesnt decompoes tho.. mmm

yes.. dried leaves and flowers WILL decompose in water.. when they are in water, theyre not exactly dried anymore, right? which gives them the capacity to decompose.

 

[wataugachicken]

yeah. . . from first-hand experience, not a good idea.

i tried to set up a leaf litter bristlenose pleco tank,and it just didn't work out. i collected about 15 nice, leathery-dry oak leaves from the yard, boiled them until they were water-logged enough to sink, and set up the tank. they leached so much tannic acid it was actually impossible to see the back of the 30g tank from the front. they slowly started to fall apart, and after a month or so were just mush and mess. honestly, the plecos`loved it, but i hated the mess, the inability to see into the tank, and the fear of major pH swings when doing water changes. the "color" from the leaves (and driftwood) is acidic, while the tap water is in the upper 7's.

 

[nomad92]

wow.. glad i posted b4 i did anything with the leaves.. =) guess there is logic behind the leaves decomposing in water.. and plus the muddy thingies in lakes.. =) no leaves in tanks.. heh

thanks everyone for helping me out!