Brown Water - from African Driftwood

[Guest]

UGH!

I'm just setting up a 75 tank. I put the gravel, plants, and water in. Then I put some water conditioners in, followed by a beautiful piece of African Driftwood I got from my LFS. My LFS said I should just need to rinse the wood, so rinse a couple time I did.

I put the piece in last night. Now upon waking this morning, the water is completely brown! I've taken the wood out and put it in a 5 gallon bucket to soak.

Two questions: 1) What can/should I do about my brown water now? 2) What should I do with this piece of driftwood?

Thanks,
Craig

 

[Minze]

There is an excellent article on here for how to treat driftwood. http://www.aquariumadvice.com/showquestion.php?faq=2&fldAuto=34

I generally followed this when I treated my lfs bought piece of wood. I did a combination of the boiling for 8 hours and still had to soak for about 5 days. Now when I do my water changes I see that my water is slightly colored, but in the tank is still looks crystal clear.

As for what to do now, I see you have no fish in, so you can probably just change all the water out. Unless of course you are doing a fishless ammonia cycle. If you are doing that, you would probably want to just do partial water changes. I'm not sure if activated carbon will remove the brown from the water, but I am sure someone else here would be able to say.

 

[Fruitbat]

Activated charcoal will remove some of the tannins from the water (the stuff that is giving the brown hue) but it won't remove it all.

A question that needs to be asked here: Is the brown color REALLY objectionable? You don't mention what kinds of fish you're going to put into the aquarium but there are a number of fish that will actually thrive in water containing a lot of tannins. Consider the so-called 'black water' of many of the Amazonian tributaries. That water is so heavily laden with tannins from decomposing leaves and wood that it is, almost literally, black in color. Fish like neon tetras absolutely love those water conditions....the tannins (including tannic acid) keep the water fairly acidic.

 

[deli_conker]

I treated mine for about a week and have had no discoloration yet.

I turned my water heater all the way up. Put the wood in a 15 gallon tub. Put the tub in the bath tub and filled it scalding hot water. Filled/emptied 3 times a day for a week (before work, after work, before bed). After about 7 days the water that it soaked in was clear.

I added activated carbon when I first set it up just in case any more tannins found their way into the water. This was about 1 month ago and I have had no problems. I'll know for sure in a week or two when the carbon is spent.

I believe my wood was malaysian driftwood though. Not sure what the tannin content difference between african and malaysian is though...

I would treat the wood by soaking it like crazy in hot water. The hotter the better. I have heard that salt helps this but I have not tried it.

Water changes and/or activated carbon will help as well as far as clearing your water.

What type of fish are you planning to keep? Most driftwood will lower ph. I had some questions in an earlier post about this.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=13379

hth

 

[Guest]

Making some progress...
Thank you everybody for your help.
After considering what eveyone said, I've done a 100% water change, so the tank is back to good again. (I wanted to keep clear water.)
As for the wood, I've put it in a 5 gallon bucket and fill it with scalding hot water from the faucet, and within an hour it's so brown I have to change it again! My only problem is the wood is a long piece that sticks up taller than the 5 gallon bucket, so... guess I'll have to deal with that...
Anyway, sounds like there's no short cuts here, just takes time... (unless anyone else has any brilliant ideas)
Thank you all for your help and I'll check back to let you know the progress!
Craig

 

[Bearfan]

Boiling it will cut down some days, but not enough IMO. Since the piece won't fit, it's going to take twice as long since you're going to have to invert it. I had to on one piece, it took about 10 days or so, changing out the water as often as I remembered 3-5 times/day.

 

[aqua_guy]

for me, it took me a month.

 

[deli_conker]

I've read about some people treating their driftwood in a trash can (cleaned, of course). If you're in a hurry, a cheap $5 one might allow the whole thing to be submersed instead of having to invert it.

 

[Guest]

Thank you everyone for the input. Some sort of cheap trash can might do the trick!! I just wish my LPS would have told me this first....
Thanks again,
Craig

 

[captainGregor]

I use my 48 quart cooler that I got at wallmart for $11. Great thing. I suddenly realized that I could soak my driftwood in it, I just left it outside for 10 days, changing water every 2 days. Also, I would recommend adding sea salt to it - about a cup for every 10 gallons of water. Your tannins will be gone soon

 

[ScottS]

I've got two pieces of "African Driftwood." I don't find the color to be that detracting as the water is still clear despite the hue. Further, the wood has slowed its release of tannins into the water. They're not harmful, and I've found they have relatively little influence on the ph of my tank.

I boiled mine for relatively short periods of time (20 minutes). Two months later, and the water is still stained, but it's really not noticeable unless you put it up against a white background, like my cleaning bucket. And again, depending on your fish, they may prefer it.

And the 100% water change is probably not a good solution. I'm assuming you're anxious to get your fishless cycle going.