Adding driftwood?

[Mazdaman]

Will driftwood always add the tint to a tanks water. (tea color) Are there any ways to have it not add color. If not what's the best way to get it to give the least amount of color off. And does the color fade with time or reach a "low" and stay there? Thanks

 

[penpitt]

Hello again Mazdaman.
I have driftwood in both tanks and never had a problem with leaching. I dont know if I was lucky or that the liquid rock they call water wont allow the tanins to come out.I was actually hoping it would color the water because I thought the effect would be nice.But between my 2 tanks I have 7 pieces of wood,bought at different times and none of them stained the water.

Methods I've heard include soaking it for a week or so and changing the water when it gets some color. I think maybe even boiling it but dont quote me on that one.

And yes over time the leeching of the tanins will diminish.

 

[Frank_the_Tank]

yes, you can boil the driftwood to release tanins. I had to boil my 2 pieces of a couple of days, changing the water every couple hours until the water was relatively clear. After that I soaked them for a week to get them to sink, and I went ahead and changed the water everyday. They haven't noticeably changed the water in the tank.

 

[FishLover14]

I would try Fake Dritftwood u can distungish it from the real thing and it will not discolor the water or realesaase tannins.

JMHO

 

[Drake]

I have a large piece of driftwood and it didn't do any thing to the water's color. All I did was rinse it well.

 

[xray]

Carbon in the filter to remove some of the tanins, might help.

 

[QTOFFER]

Check my response to this other thread. http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=43287

If the sun-bleached look is not for you, then hot water rinsing and a fresh carbon filter will remove some of the tannins.

 

[Billsgate]

It will go away after a while, and adding active carbon to your filter will remove most tannins from the water. It doesnt bother me though, considering that in nature some of my fish do live in 'blackwater' habitats. Have you ever seen pictures of these places? The water is completely brown, but at the same time clear. No dirt paticles floating around. It actually looks quite pretty to me, but I can imagine you rather have the good old clean water look .

If you really want to remove it, let your wood boil for 2-3 hours, dry up completely, do it again untill you don't see anymore colour coming off. But that's just one way to do it.

 

[Lance M.]

I would try Fake Dritftwood u can distungish it from the real thing and it will not discolor the water or realesaase tannins.

Nothing beats the real thing . And some plecos require real driftwood.

 

[Wizzard~Of~Ozz]

I personally am not fond of false wood, mainly bacuase it costs twice as much as real wood, and lacks distinct shapes.

as for the question, boiling it will work, I've treated my Mopani by soaking it in very hot water changing it only when it cooled for about 8 hours, then added to the tank with some fresh carbon, haven't noticed it at all, depends on the temperature of your tank too, the warmer the water, the faster it leeches (hence boiling it).