Tannic acid & light penetration

[frog girl]

So some recently added driftwood is really making my water yellowish brown which is really fine with me. The problem is I have sort of marginal light for a deep planted tank (about 1.3 watts per gallon). I know plants absorb light in the red & blue parts of the spectrum & the tannic acid must be reflecting the yellow light. I am a bit worried that my plants won't get their usual amount of light though.

Anybody have thoughts or experience with this?? Do I need to start doing substantial water changes to keep the levels down so my plants aren't starved for light??

[savga]

Yes, I would suspect with low light and brown water you won't be able to grow anything but floating plants. Carbon in the filter will also help to remove tannins and clear up the water temporarily. The wood will eventually stop staining the water but it may take a couple of months.

[frog girl]

Well the plants are pearling a bit so they can't be too unhappy. I will just stay on top of it with water changes until it stops.

Thanks savga

[travis simonson]

I second the carbon filtration. Tannic acid can do unexpected things to your water column in large enough quantities. Try to refresh the carbon every week or so because it doesn't have a very long active period. Like savga said, it may take several months before the wood quits leaching tannins. It will end eventually though

[frog girl]

Thanks folks,

I will try to keep on top of it. I know the tannins will eventually stop. You know I get dark water from tannins from the leaves that blow into my pond every year but it eventually clears. I wonder where it all goes?? I have no filter except a water fall on that.

[travis simonson]

How large is the driftwood? If you can fit it in a pot, boiling it for a while will help drive out the tannins.

[frog girl]

Some is too big for the pot (I have large dye pots for another of my hobbies but I only use them for dyes because sometimes I use chemicals in them) others might fit but it probably means buying a new pot since my husband has forbidden me to use kitchen utensils for anything but food. I'm sort of bad about that .

Anyway since I just got it all arranged how I want it, stacked up & with the [acronym:e40e83b14b="Carbon dioxide"]CO2[/acronym:e40e83b14b] diffuser underneath & hidden& my new java fern strapped on, I will probably take the easy way out & just do more water changes for a while. Who knows maybe it will make my tiger barbs spawn again.

Thanks though.

[frog girl]

Well since I had to change my [acronym:d585c3defd="Carbon dioxide"]CO2[/acronym:d585c3defd] setup a bit I decided to try the boiling method. Found out one of my pieces of driftwood was still decomposing & scrubbed off a bunch of smelly pulpy wood from the hard piece underneath.

So now I am boiling because I found a big enough pot in my dye stash that hadn't been used yet. I have only gone through about 4 pots of water so does anyone have an idea of what I can expect?? 20?? 40?? I am glad I am doing it though because I can't imagine changing all that water out of my aquarium.

Since I am getting sooo much out of this one I will do the other 3 as well. Might as well start out as easily as possible.

My sig other is now convinced that I am completely insane (he came home & asked what I was cooking & I said driftwood & he couldn't stop laughing).

[travis simonson]

Mmmmmm . . . driftwood soup.

I'm not sure how many times you want to boil it, but you might want to keep it up until the color of the water starts to lighten. Depending on the condition of the wood that may take some time

[frog girl]

Yeah I figured I would keep going until I wasn't getting much color (just wondered how many days that might be??). Not in a rush really so I guess its not critical.