Yellow Water

[mr.waffles1842]

Hi all, i got home from school today and the water in my 20 gal is yellowish, like apple juice. it could be its just the sun, but i just want to know if there are any reports of this. thanks

 

[Scouser]

Do you have any natural wood in the tank?

 

[mr.waffles1842]

yeah.. oh, thats it isnt it...

 

[Scouser]

yeah.. oh, thats it isnt it...

Could be, the wood would release tannins for a long period of time and this will tint the water.

 

[mr.waffles1842]

so what should i do?

 

[Scouser]

so what should i do?

There isn't much you can do for tannins, they don't harm the fish from what I have read.

If you really wanted to you could remove it and boil it in a pan for a few hours, change the water an repeat but being an established tank it will be home to a bunch of BB and its not worth removing them for crystal clear water.

Over time the wood will leach out all it's tannins and then with water changes you will have the clarity.

Be patient

 

[NoMoreGoldFish]

Throw a bag of active carbon in your filter.

 

[tropical-fish]

i found seachem purigen to be very good at removing tannins. but it needs a very fine mesh bag. i use a nylon stocking, 3 layers

 

[Dale_I]

Throw a bag of active carbon in your filter.

 

[mr.waffles1842]

ok, but if i just wait itll eventually work its way out? i did a PWC and it looks a bit better. can i just wait? its an estabilished tank, and i dont want to suck up all the plant fertilizers...

 

[tarpon]

You can just wait. The tannins wont hurt anything.
You have new driftwood in right? Bc if not thats not it

 

[tarpon]

There isn't much you can do for tannins, they don't harm the fish from what I have read.

If you really wanted to you could remove it and boil it in a pan for a few hours, change the water an repeat but being an established tank it will be home to a bunch of BB and its not worth removing them for crystal clear water.

Over time the wood will leach out all it's tannins and then with water changes you will have the clarity.

Be patient

If he just put the wood in then it wont have any BB on it. And if it did it wouldnt be harmful to remove it. But theres no point in removing it

 

[Scouser]

If he just put the wood in then it wont have any BB on it. And if it did it wouldnt be harmful to remove it. But theres no point in removing it

Well I've had my Mopani in for over a month, still slight tannin colour to water.

And BB cling to anything they can so I know my wood will have enough on that I don't want to kill it!

 

[Dale_I]

Sorry, didn't realize you were using fertilizer. Noi charcoal for you. Sure, you can just do PWC and it will slowly go away. It took a couple months in my 55 gal and I still get a slight tinge by maintenance time. Nothing harmful to the inhabitants though.

 

[tarpon]

Well I've had my Mopani in for over a month, still slight tannin colour to water.

And BB cling to anything they can so I know my wood will have enough on that I don't want to kill it!

No i just mean it wouldnt affect the tank in a bad way bc most of the bacteria is in the filter

 

[mr.waffles1842]

what is bb? benefia=cial bacteria? it is new ood, btw.

 

[tarpon]

Yep.
And yeah thats why its tinted then.
I kinda like brown water. Some people purposely do their tanks like that.

 

[mr.waffles1842]

iits pretty cool. mainly i was concerned about the fish. but my mom is scared of it. sigh..

 

[Dale_I]

No reason to be scared. Many deeper lake and slow stream or bog fish find it beneficial to have some tinge to their water. I think it more mimics their natural environment, which eases their stress levels.

There is a really cool affect if you have LED lighting shining through it. Kind of a shimmer on the bottom with a visable light column breaking the water.

Absolutely no harm for inhabitants though. Can even help with pH sometimes.

 

[mr.waffles1842]

by lowering or raising?