# Tadpole water too dark from tannins?



## stevencykf (Oct 3, 2021)

Is there such a thing as water being too dark or heavy with tannins? I have some cups with tadpoles but my water seems really dark with tannins. Maybe too much Indian almond leaf. Or it doesn't really matter?


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## hansgruber7 (Mar 23, 2020)

That looks a little dark to me. My tadpole water never gets quite that dark. How many leaves are you putting in there and how often do you change the water?


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## JasonE (Feb 7, 2011)

Just dump out some of the water and add fresh to dilute it. Yes that is pretty dark. Also, I think it's tetra that makes a tannin solution to add to the water so you can control the tannin levels. Indian almond leaves are expensive and one of those leftover from early days things. You can use any leaf species that we use in the hobby. I make mine by steeping live oak leaves. But when I bred I used the tannin solution.


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## stevencykf (Oct 3, 2021)

The water was fresh - these were new cups. I just made these cups but I think I put too many pieces of Indian almond leaves, I had about 3 or 4 pieces in each cup and the water I added was pure tannin tea water. I removed about three quarters of the dark tannin water and left just on piece of leaf and added clear distilled water. It looks more suitable now with a slight tannin color instead of the really dark water. Thanks!


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## JasonE (Feb 7, 2011)

First, make your tadpole tea in gallon jugs not in the cups. Then you can dilute as needed. 

I said fresh water. Clear water would have been a better term. Dump out half the water in the cups and fill them back up with clear water.


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## Johanovich (Jan 23, 2017)

I use RO water and throw in a single alder cone in each tadpole container. Depending on the size and "freshness" of the individual alder cone the amount of tannins and darkness of the water can vary pretty hard. So far I have not had any issues with tadpoles or froglets even with containers that turned as dark or even darker than the ones you show. To be fair some of the water in the phytotelms they use in the wild is pretty dark from all the tannins/humic acids.


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