need help with driftwood please

[Samantha_p]

it's been 2 months since I bought a large piece of driftwood
for my 125 gal tank. I've put it in a bucket of water ever since
so it will lose the brownish stain. I change the water daylight.
the driftwood is still putting of brownish stain and it's been
2 months. is their a faster way of getting it ready for the tank.
I've been told to boil but this thing is huge. any suggestions please.

 

[joy13]

Do you know what type of wood it is? Some wood will give off tannins for as long as it is in a tank. You might be able to boil it in a turkey fryer.

 

[Blueiz]

Putting carbon in your filter and changing it when it gets "full" will remove the discoloration from your water.

As joy13 said, some wood will leach tanins for as long as it is in the tank regardless of how you treat it before putting it in.

 

[cwt]

How big is this piece of driftwood? Do you have a bathtub it can fit in? Problem with that is making sure there's no soap or chlorine on it afterwards, but it's an idea.

 

[mfdrookie516]

contrary to popular belief, most fish like the yellow colored water... some people even set up their tanks to have a nice tan color to it... that being said, it gets on my nerves and i had the same problem... if you soak it in a big tub and do water changes every couple of days, it should clear up, unless its one of those types of wood that will leach out the tannins forever...

 

[supradupafast]

Putting carbon in your filter and changing it when it gets "full" will remove the discoloration from your water.

As joy13 said, some wood will leach tanins for as long as it is in the tank regardless of how you treat it before putting it in.

I agree with Blueiz.
Happened to me with my Malaysian Driftwood. Discolored in my tank even after soaking it for 2 weeks. I put the carbon filter for a week, and the water is clean again.

 

[DragonFish71]

I soak DW in water but I also run it through the dishwasher (without soap) That seems to help get a lot of the tannins out. However, I'm one of those that likes tannins in the tanks that we use DW for decor. The type of fish we keep in those tanks prefer lower Ph waters and the tannins help with that.

 

[th08tu]

You could try boiling it for many hours. That is what I do with mine. Sometimes it works, other time it will always leach. Depending on the type of fish you have it might be more realistic to have a slight tint to the water, as I don't think one piece of wood would make your water super brown if you kept up with your pwc.

 

[fishboy444]

Your lucky mine released ammonia into the water but no tannins.Sorry that I didn't answer .

 

[th08tu]

Wow i have never heard of releasing ammonia, maybe there was enough bacteria and/or mini creatures that dyed when it was put it it caused a spike. Is it still releasing ammonia?

 

[fishboy444]

nah I soaked it for 2 weeks and it leached out and I did water changes every 4-5 days.

 

[th08tu]

Sounds like fun, at least you didn't notice it was leaching ammonia while it was in your tank!

 

[fishboy444]

Actually that is where I noticed it.It had 0.25 ppm of ammonia.

 

[th08tu]

oops, lol

 

[jackdaniel]

Mopani and Malaysian driftwood will leech tanins into the water for about a month or so. Just change the water if you don't like the look. Adding carbon to the filter helps greatly. Tannins do not harm fish and will stop leeching after a month or so.