Yes thats the case but,....it will filter out most of the blue part of the color spectrum so the growth of algea will reduce. You can simply let the lighting turn on for an extra hour and still have the same plant growth. It might take a couple of weeks for the plants to adjust to the diferent color spectrum dough. Using peat (or peat extract) will also add minerals to the water which increases plant growth.the tannins in the water will reduce the amount of light getting to the plants.
Be careful with that,.....a lot of peat in the substrate can couse decay and build up of gasses. Small amounts will contribute to the growth of plants becouse peat contains a lot of minerals.I have peat in the substrate
They work the substrate and decrease the change on buildup of gases. A thin layer of peat is no problem. Back in the 80's people used peat blocks of abouth 1 inch thick as plant substrate. It worked great for abouth 6 months and start to decay and causing lots of troubles. Small amounts are OK and increase plant growth.I also have trumpet snails working through the substrate.
:lol:of course this is if you've got everything planned out first
I agrea although some floating plants may occur (like eigornia). If you go for a real blackwater biotope I would recommend floating plants. Those extract lots of nitrates and it also looks nice if the plants do have long root systems. At the same time they provide shelter for the fish. Some people would not agrea on the high maintenance. A planted tank is more work as a tank with leaves. You can scoop out the leaves with every water change. The biggest problem with the leaves is that they start to decay after abouth 4 weeks. So you need a huge bag of oak leaves to change them every month for new once. Blairo1 made a post abouth such a biotope somewhere around January if I remember it well. You can check old posts on the SA board. An other possibility is to add lots of driftwood and also small pieces of 1 or 2 inch. You can put in some peat fibres to create a natural look. Next a link with some real nice and interesting vids of natural habitats http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?u ... ezuela&p=r Those aren't blackwater habitats dough! You can also find some nice vids on youtube of blackwater habitats like this oneFYI a true black water biotype has no plant material at all - and is more consistent with driftwood and a lot of oak leaves for a substrate, they're very high maintenance tanks.
