Thanks for answering my last question, and now I have a few more.
It does seem that using a piece of bogwood would be the way to go to get black water, however I don't know if there is any place to get it around here (why I had asked about extract). None of the fish stores here sell bogwood, and nearly all of the local trees are soft wood, pine is about our hardest variety (there are disadvantages to living in a not so big town in the desert). However, I may be able to find some traveling in the near future. Does bogwood eventually lose its ability to "generate" and give off the tannins and other things to create black water? And if so, is there any way to predict at how long a piece will last?
Also, if I do end up going with extract, I have seen several things claiming that it can be good to add a very small amount of black water extract to none black water tanks in order to give some of the minerals to the water for the benefit of fish and plants (these have mostly been promotional things). I was wondering if any one had experience with this, and how it could turn out. The idea seems to make sense, but so would not adding more things to tank water (it would just be more complicated then).
Thanks for your help.
It does seem that using a piece of bogwood would be the way to go to get black water, however I don't know if there is any place to get it around here (why I had asked about extract). None of the fish stores here sell bogwood, and nearly all of the local trees are soft wood, pine is about our hardest variety (there are disadvantages to living in a not so big town in the desert). However, I may be able to find some traveling in the near future. Does bogwood eventually lose its ability to "generate" and give off the tannins and other things to create black water? And if so, is there any way to predict at how long a piece will last?
Also, if I do end up going with extract, I have seen several things claiming that it can be good to add a very small amount of black water extract to none black water tanks in order to give some of the minerals to the water for the benefit of fish and plants (these have mostly been promotional things). I was wondering if any one had experience with this, and how it could turn out. The idea seems to make sense, but so would not adding more things to tank water (it would just be more complicated then).
Thanks for your help.