Whats leaching?

[alisharev]

Why do you need to leach drifted wood? and what is leaching?

 

[i3k]

tannins leach out in to the water and make your water light brown color. this is why you need to try and extract as much of the tannins from the driftwood as you can, before placing it in your tank.

 

[BigJim]

If you don't mind the tannins in the water, you can just put the driftwood in the tank. It's called "blackwater" and many south american fish live happily in these conditions. A little activated carbon will remove the tannins from the water.

 

[SeverumGuy]

The tannins cause your water to turn brown, but they also cause a drop in your PH levels. Depending on what kind of fish you're keep, that could be a good thing. Make sure you know what conditions your fish require. You may need the buy some buffer to maintain a neutral to higher PH. I would recommend Seachem alkaline buffer. That's what I use in my tank. I have driftwood and my PH hangs around 7.6 with the buffer. It's a little higher than I prefer but my fish seem happy. Just need to calm down the dosage is all.

 

[Coleallensmom]

+1 on the monitoring PH levels after adding wood to your tank. I added a fairly large piece and my PH and alkalinity has dropped quite a bit. I never had any luck with carbon removing the tannins from the water, but I picked up some Seachem's Purigen and that has worked wonderfully.

 

[alisharev]

Oops. I let the drift wood sit in a bucket full of my tank water, for 4 hours or so. Just because I wanted it to sink. Every thing seems to be fine for now. the water is a little yellow, but I have done some water changes. I really don't mind if its a little yellow as long as its clear. I think just a few more changes with RO water will take the yellow out.

 

[alisharev]

+1 on the monitoring PH levels after adding wood to your tank. I added a fairly large piece and my PH and alkalinity has dropped quite a bit. I never had any luck with carbon removing the tannins from the water, but I picked up some Seachem's Purigen and that has worked wonderfully.

Your tank is beautiful! How long have you had it?

 

[alisharev]

The tannins cause your water to turn brown, but they also cause a drop in your PH levels. Depending on what kind of fish you're keep, that could be a good thing. Make sure you know what conditions your fish require. You may need the buy some buffer to maintain a neutral to higher PH. I would recommend Seachem alkaline buffer. That's what I use in my tank. I have driftwood and my PH hangs around 7.6 with the buffer. It's a little higher than I prefer but my fish seem happy. Just need to calm down the dosage is all.

Now thats wierd, because it actually upped my PH. My PH has always been about 7.6 too, but after I put it in, it went to 7.2 or around that.

 

[Coleallensmom]

Thank you! That tank is about 4 months old but that plants have only been in since the begining of December. I've been working hard on it and have seen a lot of growth in the plants the last month. I need to put a new photo up.

 

[alisharev]

Your plants look good. I just started my 55 gallon, but I had a 30 gallon tank for a year. I need to get some photos up too.

 

[alisharev]

If you don't mind the tannins in the water, you can just put the driftwood in the tank. It's called "blackwater" and many south american fish live happily in these conditions. A little activated carbon will remove the tannins from the water.

Maybe the active carbon is why my water is only slightly yellow.

 

[i3k]

Now thats wierd, because it actually upped my PH. My PH has always been about 7.6 too, but after I put it in, it went to 7.2 or around that.

If your pH went from 7.6 to 7.2...then it dropped a bit. I doubt it will drop lower than that though.

 

[alisharev]

thank you, I understand now. I was switched around. It hasn't droped any lower, its been perfectly stayble. thats nice because I used to have a problem with that.