# aquarium safe leaves



## babyboybetta (Feb 28, 2016)

so i've been using indian almond leaves for quite awhile, and i just ran out of the bunch that i bought last year, so instead of buying more, i was wondering if there were any leaves i could use from around my neighborhood.

here in miami we have a ton of fruit trees, such as bananas, cashew apples, mangoes, loquat, and avocados. there are probably a few that i'm forgetting but that's most of them that i can remember. there are also a few almond trees too, which i would collect but they're all on private property and i feel like i would sound a little weird if i ask if i can just... you know casually take a trash bag full of these leaves on the floor.

so my question is, are any of these leaves safe to put in my tanks? i remember seeing someone on youtube use mango leaves but i got a lot of conflicting info online about them being poisonous which... i dunno i eat my weight in mangoes every summer and have never heard someone say something about them being poisonous.


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

Dried banana leaves are safe, as are I believe (but you might want to verify) the leaves from a Loquat tree. 

Otherwise, you can use oak leaves, beech leaves, and alder leaves. However, I'm not sure how common those types of trees are in Miami. 

If you are collecting dried leaves yourself, you want to make certain that they have not been sprayed with pesticides.


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## babyboybetta (Feb 28, 2016)

most of these trees were grown by my uncle and he doesn't use any pesticides on them. we don't have oak trees down here, but we do have seagrape, which i think i read that they were safe somewhere. i've yet to collect any of those though.


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## RickyTan (Jan 26, 2017)

i use banana leaf (dried) from my trees.


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## babyboybetta (Feb 28, 2016)

took a bag full of seagrape leaves from school today. i plan on boiling most of them and letting them dry in the sun some time this weekend. i'm also going to my uncle's to get some banana leaves and stems, loquat leaves and some coconut peels. is there anything else i can do to make sure these leaves are clean?


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## DenisCesel (Apr 2, 2020)

Are you washing the aquarium more often when you use leaves? I have Live rocks in my aquarium and because they are also organic as the leaves, they will need to be cured. If it smells like the ocean or a jetty at low tide your good to go, if it smells strongly like rotten fish it will need to be cured. So I am thinking to cure the rock or to change it. Do you guys know if it is hard? I have read an article about Live rocks and it seems not that hard. do you have any experience with them?


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## Mr Grumpy (Feb 28, 2020)

Hi
This is just my opinion

Boiling the leaves is a waste of time energy and tannins,

What I do is pre heat the oven to 120 is Celsius stick the dry leaves in and turn the oven off, this will kill any bugs and such ,Take the leaves out when cool and put in tank.


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## krustyart (3 mo ago)

LittleBettaFish said:


> ..........................I'm not sure how common those types of trees are in Miami.


Live Oaks are common in all of Florida


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