Driftwood turned tank water brown

[Oscarr19]

Its what I get for not soaking it. I bought it at my LFS. It turned the tank water to a brownish color. The tank has been up for almost two weeks now. The driftwood also has white cloudy slime growing on it. I tried adding nutrafin waste control since I got it with my tank. I'll see if it helps in the morning. As far as tank water can I do a big water change tomorrow? Around 40%

 

[toddnbecka]

It will continue to turn your water brown for weeks, maybe longer. I have quite a bit of mopani wood in my 125. I soaked it for weeks before setting up the tank (months ago) and it's still tinting the water. I change 40 gallons and put a fresh load of carbon in one of the 2 aquaclear 110's, it clears up for a week, then the carbon is loaded and it starts getting darker again.
A bristlenose pleco would be helpful for keeping the wood (and the glass) clean if the tank is cycled and you have stocking space.

 

[Bassking17]

It will continue to turn your water brown for weeks, maybe longer. I have quite a bit of mopani wood in my 125. I soaked it for weeks before setting up the tank (months ago) and it's still tinting the water. I change 40 gallons and put a fresh load of carbon in one of the 2 aquaclear 110's, it clears up for a week, then the carbon is loaded and it starts getting darker again.
A bristlenose pleco would be helpful for keeping the wood (and the glass) clean if the tank is cycled and you have stocking space.

I have a question..
Are those new eheim gravel vacs worth buying?

 

[Oscarr19]

It's still safe to start stocking my tank right?

 

[eco23]

It's still safe to start stocking my tank right?

The tannins (what causes the tea colored water) won't do any harm...it can lower pH a bit and be unsightly...but the fish don't mind the color.

As for being safe to stock...is the tank cycled? Using seeded media?

 

[tarpon]

Yep. The tannins aren't harmful to fish

 

[Oscarr19]

The tank is cycled and ready for fish. I'm running a fluval 205 and AC30. The fluval was from an established tank so when I set it up I added a few fish and tested for a week. I had no spikes or mini cycles.

 

[eco23]

Good deal. Make sure you post some pics when it's stocked . I'd still add them slowly since it's been a few weeks with a small bio-load.

 

[Oscarr19]

I've got a few pics in my build thread. The link is in my sig if you'd like to check it out. I still have some rocks and plants to get but I'm starting to stock this weekend.

 

[Oscarr19]

Oh btw I meant AC50 not 30. Got A LOT of water movement at the surface. Nothing to bad lol the minnows love swimming against it. Hopefully it clears up soon.