Best Medicine for Monster Fish? (and it's natural/herbal based)

Rocksor

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Thx for input! And yeah esp. if you've got a decent sized tank you can go through those 150ml bottles pretty quick, so not super cheap esp. longer run.

By the way, with the Indian Almond leaves do you worry about PH fluctuations or are they negligible?

I recently have got some 'Wish Arowana Spa' (by Medifish) but haven't tried it yet. Ingredients are "wild almond leaf extract, sodium chloride (salt), calcium chloride and preservatives." I was worried it might affect PH -- as on the box in Thai it says it "lowers hardness of water to help neutralize PH."

But last night I did a test with a pail of water, and it didn't seem to noticeably affect the PH at all according to Tetra test kit (even when I purposely overdosed the water).

View attachment 1356457

But again curious if you get any PH swings when using regular Indian almond leaves.
Test your KH (buffering capacity).

PH swings will occur with tannins when you have low KH (buffering capacity), like around 4 degrees. If you have high KH, like 8 degrees, it will take a lot of tannins to bring that down. I found that it takes about 1 cup of sphagnum peat moss to reduce the KH from 8 degrees to 4 degrees of 24 cups of water.
 
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islandguy11

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Test your KH (buffering capacity).

PH swings will occur with tannins when you have low KH (buffering capacity), like around 4 degrees. If you have high KH, like 8 degrees, it will take a lot of tannins to bring that down. I found that it takes about 1 cup of sphagnum peat moss to reduce the KH from 8 degrees to 4 degrees of 24 cups of water.
That's some super info Rocksor, many thanks.

So I just tested KH in both the tank and out of tap. Unfortunately for measuring KH I don't have a specific tester, just Tetra's 6-in-1 strips. I don't know how accurate these are when it comes to KH but both tests came in at around 7 degrees (which likely explains why during my PH tests mentioned above there was no noticeable difference after adding the Wish Arowana Spa).

I'm going to add this solution to a 325 soon (Aro lost a scale about 5 days ago, and I hope the almond leaf/tannins help it grow back strong and get back its color/shine more quickly. I'll test the tank's PH soon after adding the solution, and then again after an hour or two just to make sure.
 

Rocksor

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I would test the PH about 2-3 hours later so that it circulates the tank fully

What type of Asian Aro?
 
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islandguy11

Redtail Catfish
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I would test the PH about 2-3 hours later so that it circulates the tank fully

What type of Asian Aro?
Thx, will do that. It's a ~11" Goldenhead Crossback from Malaysia. But should say 'Hothead Crossback' on certificate --he's kind of aggro, esp. hates nets. I also have a lovely new ~11.5" Blue Base since about a month, but haven't shown her yet on the site, planning to do so soon, esp. given a little mishap she had recently and is lucky to have survived with only a few lost scales. She's 'Thunder', here's 'Lightning'...

GHXB Dec 2018.jpg
GHXB 23 Jan 2019.jpg
 
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