Tannins

[jtez]

Hi, woke up this morning to a slightly stained tank, looks like tannins. Can they be coming from decaying plants? I have some wisteria, some of which is dying and I've left in there.

It is a dirted tank, so my only other suggestion is that its not capped properly :/

 

[bshenanagins]

Hi, woke up this morning to a slightly stained tank, looks like tannins. Can they be coming from decaying plants? I have some wisteria, some of which is dying and I've left in there.

It is a dirted tank, so my only other suggestion is that its not capped properly :/

Definitely the dirt leaching from somewhere

 

[jtez]

Drain, recap and re fill?

 

[bshenanagins]

How new is the setup? If its been running for a while I'd leave it be and see if the dirty appearance goes away. Try adding some filter floss and/or purigen. If it doesn't help I'd recap.

 

[jtez]

Its a week and a half old. Today i filled the filter with activated carbon and filter wool

 

[jtez]

If it was the dirt leaching could I expect to see nitrate spikes or is that unlikely?

 

[bshenanagins]

If it was the dirt leaching could I expect to see nitrate spikes or is that unlikely?

Not unless you have fertilizer in it? If its just dirt you should be fine. Doesn't hurt to check though

 

[Mebbid]

I would use purigen over carbon for a planted tank. The carbon will absorb some of the ferts that are added to the tank while the purigen wont.

 

[bshenanagins]

I would use purigen over carbon for a planted tank. The carbon will absorb some of the ferts that are added to the tank while the purigen wont.

Agreed, plus you can recharge it over and over again.

 

[Rivercats]

If you used Organic Potting Soil it will leach. It has nothing to do with your cap. There is a lot of things in organic potting soil and peat is one of the main ingredients usually. Depending on the brand used leaching can be light to heavy and doing WC along with using either Purgen or Carbon will help.

Now if you've never had a dirted tank before when you first add the organic potting soil it releases a lot of excess nutrients the first few weeks. If you have a lot of plants they usually mop up all the excess nutrients which will include nitrates. If you don't have a lot of fast growing plants then you need to watch your nitrate levels and do water changes to keep nitrates below 20ppm. I've been doing dirted tanks for many years and my largest one currently is a 220g 100% planted.

 

[jtez]

If you used Organic Potting Soil it will leach. It has nothing to do with your cap. There is a lot of things in organic potting soil and peat is one of the main ingredients usually. Depending on the brand used leaching can be light to heavy and doing WC along with using either Purgen or Carbon will help.

Now if you've never had a dirted tank before when you first add the organic potting soil it releases a lot of excess nutrients the first few weeks. If you have a lot of plants they usually mop up all the excess nutrients which will include nitrates. If you don't have a lot of fast growing plants then you need to watch your nitrate levels and do water changes to keep nitrates below 20ppm. I've been doing dirted tanks for many years and my largest one currently is a 220g 100% planted.

Organic potting soil is what I used yeah, so the peat would explain the pH drop i've experienced. That answers another one of my other questions thank you. I hope you don't mind if I PM you in future with more questions about dirted tanks?

Looks like I'll be down to the LFS to find some Purigen then, thank you very much everyone

 

[Rivercats]

It's fine to PM me.