Tannins from boiled mangrove

[Johanna]

I'm just now boiling a new store-bought piece of mangrove wood for the new discus, and I have a bucketload of very black water as a by-product. Would it be useful to bottle it and safe to use it as a water conditioner? I rinsed the log before boiling it.

Sorry if I posted this in the wrong section, not quite sure where this question belongs...

[brewmaster15]

Johanna you can store it and use as a blackwater extract but the problem is stability. Depending on the organic matter in it it may foul. If you want to try I would suggest boiling it down to concentrate and the store cool. I have not done this with tannin water but if I were to try storing it thats what I would do

[Johanna]

Ok, what about freezing it to preserve it?

[brewmaster15]

That would work.

[Johanna]

Done! I boiled it down to 500ml of very dark black water extract, bottled in an empty Aquasana bottle. Just a few drops of it visibly changes the colour of a glass of water. I think I'll have to be careful with the dosing and do some experiments before using it for discus. For now it went into the fridge, I'll freeze the rest of it after I do the testing. Mainly I want to see how it will affect the pH to have some idea of suitable dosage.

[gimaal]

This is a very interesting experiment. Eager to hear what results you get.

[brewmaster15]

Done! I boiled it down to 500ml of very dark black water extract, bottled in an empty Aquasana bottle. Just a few drops of it visibly changes the colour of a glass of water. I think I'll have to be careful with the dosing and do some experiments before using it for discus. For now it went into the fridge, I'll freeze the rest of it after I do the testing. Mainly I want to see how it will affect the pH to have some idea of suitable dosage.

With your soft water it should bring your pH down fairly easy.