10 Gallon Planted Aquarium

[fishfool58]

ACG = activated carbon granules. It's the tannin in the dw that lowers ph. Did you soak it?? Try a few pwc to remove some of it. It also stains your water the color of tea so if it has not tiny then most of the tanin is probably out.

I have carbon in a media bag, cause I didnt wanna waste a carbon filter on then crap floating around.. & I soaked it for 2 days before I put it in, & my water doesn't look tea
Color except what I came from the substrate which left it's evidence on my plants & java moss.. After the pwc's would my pH get back to the proper 7.2? I know DW naturally keeps it low, like calcium/coral naturally keeps it high, but I didn't think it would decrease it to 6.2..

 

[M1k3y_gumi]

If your not in a rush try taking your drift wood out and soaking it in just a bucket of new water for a day or two and see if the water changes color. If it does, I suppose you just need to leech out as much tannin as you can before hand. You could try boiling it I suppose. if you try adding some rocks the oh may be pushed up. There's complicated chemistry involving. Udders and what not and I wouldn't use chemicals unless you do lot and lots of reasearch and are able to regularly monitor water. As of now all I can say is pwc.

 

[fishfool58]

If your not in a rush try taking your drift wood out and soaking it in just a bucket of new water for a day or two and see if the water changes color. If it does, I suppose you just need to leech out as much tannin as you can before hand. You could try boiling it I suppose. if you try adding some rocks the oh may be pushed up. There's complicated chemistry involving. Udders and what not and I wouldn't use chemicals unless you do lot and lots of reasearch and are able to regularly monitor water. As of now all I can say is pwc.

I'm not in a rush, but I've got a lot of plants tied up to the DW now, I'll just stick with water changes, the tea color water doesn't bother me as much as having low low pH, & the said dust particles settling down on all my plants.. It makes them look dead.. The only chemicals I want to use is prime, & flourish for my plants that need nutrients in water since they aren't in the ground..

 

[M1k3y_gumi]

Well the tea colored tannin is what normally lowers ph. But maybe you could try upsetting the dust before pwc so that you pick as much of it up when changing the water.

 

[fishfool58]

Well the tea colored tannin is what normally lowers ph. But maybe you could try upsetting the dust before pwc so that you pick as much of it up when changing the water.

Yeah, I'm gonna try that when I get home.. & ooh.. Well it doesn't really seem like there a lot of tannis.. But I'm gonna do a 50% wc.