[Betta132]

One of my tanks has a layer of pecan leaf litter in it, plus a few magnolia leaves, and it's pretty cool. Looks natural, and plants seem to like it. Plus, my cories love it, and they have nice long barbels so it plainly isn't bad for them. Only drawback is I've only seen my banjo cat about five times this year.
Who else uses leaf litter in their tanks?

 

[longgonedaddy]

I'm starting to. I'm slowly converting a planted Amazon-ish setup to a blackwater.

 

[Betta132]

Cool, what kind of leaves? Oak are great for blackwater stuff, but they do have the potential to turn your tank into tea. It's hard to see fish swimming in tea.

 

[longgonedaddy]

I have guava leaves now, coupled with a bunch of pods from Tannin Aquatics. I have an abundance of oak and maple on my property, but as someone on here said in another thread, they look too "familiar." I like the way the guava looks, so I plan on getting some more, as well as adding some catappa, or other more tropical looking leaves. I'm not afraid of the blackwater, in fact, that's my end game.

 

[AWolf]

I've thought about magnolia leaves. Never seen anyone using them.

 

[MChambers]

I've used magnolia leaves for years without issue.

 

[GrampsGrunge]

Alder cones are recommended for creating tannins. I wonder if their leaves could work also?