Can’t remove tannins

[Chris 93]

I have recently added a large stump of wood to my tank 180 litres / 47 gallons and my water is stained Heavily with tannins, I wouldn’t mind a small amount of staining but the light is barely reaching the plants. I’ve been running around 500g /18oz of activated Carbon for 3 days yet it still has not cleared the tannins out of the water to any noticeable degree , does anyone have any experience with removing tannins ?

 

[okapizebra]

To my knowledge carbon doesnt remove tannins but I think purigen does.

Regardless the wood is going to continue to release tannins for a while. If you want to speed it up, you can take it out and boil it multiple times. You could also soak it in a bucket of water for a while and change the water often. Or just do a lot of water changes in your tank.

If it's a really big dense piece it's going to take some time for it to stop releasing tannins.

 

[Autumnsky]

As above recommendations.

As a side note, tannins are good for the fish. Not really good for seeing into the tank as much though, also true. I have a tank right now getting ready to set up which looks like coffee...

 

[Flyfisher]

Removing and replacing water with temperature matched conditioned water will lower the tannins level. There is no reason why you can’t do daily 45% water changes. If you have time you can do 45% water changes 3 hours apart.

As mentioned above the wood will release less and less tannins for a long time.
Chris 93 you write a large stump was it from an aquarium shop or from the wild ?
What species of tree do you know?

 

[Chris 93]

Thanks for all the replies , the stump is from the woods and is oak ,I pressure washed it and soaked it for about a week before adding it , I think I will try purigen and let you know if that works , I have also started doing 45% water changes to keep it a bit clearer.

 

[rlederer]

I have found that some wood takes months to be clear of tannins. Even after boiling.