Tea tree and aquariums

[Alan79]

Hi all.
I was looking at some plants that i could bonsai and plant over my aquaruim and like some local tea tree species. I know they produce oils in the leaves and was wondering if anyone knows if the oil released from leaf fall would harm my fish? From my reading in the last hour i know they Bonsai easily enough and i can do what is needed to get some to grow. If the leaves are harmful i will need to find something else though. I would assume that leaf fall wouldn't be a major issue anyway. Anyone care to offer opinions on this?

 

[Jkeating8]

I don't have much to offer here, but the only thing I can think of the leaf fall doing would be lowering Ph. What kind of trees?

 

[Alan79]

The scientific name for it is leptospermum family Myrtaceae. It's commonly known as Australian tea tree. You can boil the leaves to release the tea tree oil you buy commercially. My sister has a nice healthy plant in her yard i have been eying off since she asked me to trim it soon. The leaves tend to cling to the branches when they die for a while so i'd have time to trim the majority of them before they fell.

I think it would be safe because tea tree grows abundantly in the waterlogged areas around many Australian waterways and we still have healthy aquatic life where they grow.