do root tabs impact the coloration of the water?

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piao liang yu

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I sometimes have tannins in my water, but typically after a pwc it is good. Lately i have been using purigen and don't notice it at all except now i am. I have recharged the purigen and still have tannin looking water. Could the root tabs be the issue? It just started being an issue of not resolving with the purigen and pwc since i went to using root tabs.

anyone have this experience?
 
What type of gravel do you have? What brand are the root tabs?
 
Ok, i left out some info.

yes, i have driftwood. A lot. I understand drifwood can cause tannins, but i explained that i remedy that with weekly pwc's and purigen. My question is does root tabs also have the same effect because it does not seem my remedies are working now. The only change is the root tabs. Seachem root tabs. Black sand substrate.
 
Ok, i left out some info.

yes, i have driftwood. A lot. I understand drifwood can cause tannins, but i explained that i remedy that with weekly pwc's and purigen. My question is does root tabs also have the same effect because it does not seem my remedies are working now. The only change is the root tabs. Seachem root tabs. Black sand substrate.

I have no experience with Seachem's brand of root tabs. You could try dropping one tablet in a bucket of water and watch for discoloration over time. Perhaps cover it with the same substrate to simulate the tank conditions.
 
It shouldn't be the root tabs causing you tannin issues. I would suspect the driftwood.

How often are you recharging your Purigen? If there's a lot of something in the water, you can exhaust your purigen really quickly. I'm also a little dubious about how well Purigen will absorb/adsorb tannins. Activated carbon might be better in this particular case, aside from the whole recharging thing.
 
I sometimes have tannins in my water, but typically after a pwc it is good. Lately i have been using purigen and don't notice it at all except now i am. I have recharged the purigen and still have tannin looking water. Could the root tabs be the issue? It just started being an issue of not resolving with the purigen and pwc since i went to using root tabs.

anyone have this experience?

What brand of water conditioner do you use? Some have an ingredient that interferes with purigen's ability to recharge. Is your purigen turning white when you recharge it?
 
What brand of water conditioner do you use? Some have an ingredient that interferes with purigen's ability to recharge. Is your purigen turning white when you recharge it?

i use seachem prime. i recharge my purigen with bleach and water. soak it 24 hours and it is completely white when done. i then soak it 24 hours in a small amount of water with prime.
 
But now I'm wondering- is there even any point in using root tabs and excel etc if purigen is also being used? I just bought a 2l bottle of excel and a couple of packs of root tabs, but isn't purigen supposed to REMOVE organics???
 
But now I'm wondering- is there even any point in using root tabs and excel etc if purigen is also being used? I just bought a 2l bottle of excel and a couple of packs of root tabs, but isn't purigen supposed to REMOVE organics???

The fertilizers we use are non organic, so the purigen will not remove them.

To the op, is it possible we can get a picture of the tank, to better see your situation? Tank size? How long have you had the driftwood? And exactly how much purigen are you using? Since you've stated you have a ton of driftwood, you'll have to use more to prevent from prematurely exhausting the purigen.
 
As I already asked, how often are you recharging it?

i recharge it every second water change so every two weeks. it is actually looking better now. perhaps. i will wait and see if it gets as good as i had known previously.
 
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