Amazon acid pool

[paul beeston]

I have today acquired another tank not very big just about 60l and I'm thinking about trying a acid pool biotope.

Now it my understanding (please correct me if I'm wrong) that they use very low pH sometimes as low as 4 or 5? I'm able to use RO water as I have a filter for my marines which produces water a pH 6 will this be OK?

Also I have never used RO in a freshwater tank before do I need to add anything to the water to put some nutrients back into it for the plants?

I'm intending on using some branch like bogwood which will leak the tannins into the water to create the browing look as well as some dark substrate which will probably be Tahitian moon sand as I have some left over as well as plants such as

heteranthera zosterifolia (if my lights are good enough)
Anubias
some kind of hygrophila
swords
then some floating plants such as salvinia, water lettuce or something along those lines.

Fish wise it will just be a few tetras, cardinals, red eye etc hatchetfish, penguin fish?? and maybe some Cory

If theres anything I have missed or you see I'm going wrong somewhere please don't hesitate to tell me as advice is always appreciated especially as thins is my 1st propper attempt at a biotope

[TomMessenger]

RO water should come out near enough pure at pH7 rather than 6. Is there any reason you want to keep the pH any lower? The fish or plants won't care as long as conditions are stable enough.
As for tannins, I found the JBL bogwood to excell!! I've given up on mine because it stains the water so badly even after a long period of use. You could also try some leaf litter and thin twigs to make it look natural.
I'd personally try no more than 2 species of shoaling fish in a 60l, and maybe a pair of dwarf cichlids or something. 

Have a look here: http://www.amanotakashi.net/portfolio/amazon/underwater.html

Tom

[paul beeston]

Cheers Tom, regarding the pH my ro comes out a 6 Does go through a di filter last tho.

I'm not really fussed about what pH the tank runs at it just I have read in the wild the pH is very low. I understand that buying fish from my lfs wont be use to such low pH so may just stick to a mix of 50/50 ro/tap water keeping it at a steady 7.

As for the fish I wasn't intending on keeping all those they were just a few options at what I have been looking at

Thanks for the feedback and link

[Olly101]

Hi Tom,

In terms of adding to the RO water. You can add specific minerals into the water to for the fish and the plants. It will be a liquid based treatment which you will be able to pick up from your lfs.

[Robert21]

Not sure what plants you'll get to grow in low ph, so be prepared.
I think you can get additives to add to the RO water to replace minerals.
If it was slightly bigger (3') I'd suggest breeding zebra plecs.....they'd love it   
The tetras and corys will as though   
Try and get some "different" corys, there are a lot to choose from, maybe even some pygmeus to shoal with the tetras....they'll need good protein food, daphnia, whiteworm etc. as they are quite fussy eaters.
Bit small for penguin tetras, they get quite big. Mine are getting on for 3" now.