Tank bad colour from driftwood need help!!

[Mattefect]

Hey everyone i bought to logs of driftwood 4 weeks ago i soaked the wood in water and changed the water every week. Then i recently added the wood to my tank. It has made the tank a very tanny colour and i dont like the colour. U have 4 discus and its done nothing to them but wanted to know if i could get te water back to its crystal clear form without hurting my beatiful discus thanks .

 

[HN1]

The tannins won't harm your fish. If you want to remove them add carbon to your filter and increase water changes.

 

[melosu58]

Moved to FW general discussion. This forum is for tech support.

 

[JAB]

- or - let it be and in about 3-6months, you will have a 50% lightening because you will do you REGULARLY SCHEDULED water changes. Right? You have to STOP and think about the reason you did this in the first place. Aethestics aside, your putting the driftwood in a DISCUS tank was the best choice you could have made for them. DO YOUR HOMEWORK, your fish WILL BREED in that "tea" mixture - and you will have given them what they NEED. If all you want is a "pretty" tank, might i suggest a COMMUNITY TANK instead of a speciality one.

I bred discus for 3 years. Instead of going to the LFS for the (overpriced) pieces of driftwood, i found them locally IN NATURE and BOILED the bejeezuz out of them for 2 months. I have had those same pieces for 15 years.

It looks like you did likewise (rinsing, clean, conditioning) and now want to UNDO - just cuz it looked messed up.

Here's where you choose what that tank will be (see above), the STYLE, TYPE and RESULT are all up to you. The poor fish are simply captive, depending on you to provide the environment they need to thrive - or colored marbles. You decide. Soon. (I see your multiple PANIC POSTS and I smile. NOTHING is wrong... READ READ READ everything is on the web.

ps: there WILL be more tanks - you will NOT escape - your fish might though

 

[Saltair]

JAB I dont normally do this, but I have to speak up here. I appreciate that you have a lot of experience, but I also see you are new here and have proclaimed you want to help the newbie panic posts. If you haven't been lurking you need to read around some. The tone of your above post is a little harsh, sarcastic, and generally intense, The great thing about this board is its gentle nature. Not everyone has the drive or fish keeping goals you do. The OP has posted 6 times and after reading her posts I fail to see the "urgent" nature of any of them. They are simply asking questions they dont have the answers to. If you want to show us your knowledge and be helpful that is fine, but go easy man. Its not about proving how good you are, but helping the poster get what they want out of keeping their fish. That will get you respect on this board, not the capital letters and harsh tone.

 

[XimeD]

+1 on saltair.

While I am sure that JAB had good intentions, the post is a bit aggressive IMO. People should be able to post any question, and yes, there are answers to a lot of things out online but doesn't mean we should tell someone to just go read it, there is also a lot of conflicting info out there.

To mattefect:
Welcome to AA! Regarding the tannins, I agree with HN1, activated carbon and more frequent PWCs will do the trick. If you are planning on using carbon have in mind that it will "exhaust" itself after some time (how long depends on how much organic matter it is absorbing) so make sure to change it frequenly (buying loose carbon and a filter bag will probably be cheaper than the prepackaged cartridges). Also tannins are actually tannic acid which can decrease the pH of your tank (how much will depend on the amount of tannins and how soft/hard your water is) so, if you have soft water (for discus I assume you do) keep an eye on your pH and when you do PWCs check that your tap water and your tank water don't have more than a 0.2 unit difference.

Hope this helps =)

 

[Tim Wheatley]

+1 XimeD

Won't harm your fish, and really that's what matters. It will decrease over time.

 

[Coleallensmom]

Welcome to AA! Regarding the tannins, I agree with HN1, activated carbon and more frequent PWCs will do the trick. If you are planning on using carbon have in mind that it will "exhaust" itself after some time (how long depends on how much organic matter it is absorbing) so make sure to change it frequenly (buying loose carbon and a filter bag will probably be cheaper than the prepackaged cartridges). Also tannins are actually tannic acid which can decrease the pH of your tank (how much will depend on the amount of tannins and how soft/hard your water is) so, if you have soft water (for discus I assume you do) keep an eye on your pH and when you do PWCs check that your tap water and your tank water don't have more than a 0.2 unit difference.

Hope this helps =)

Good advice from Xime. Just wanted to add that I have had less luck with Carbon and more luck with Seachem's Purigen for removing tannins in my tank. Added Bonus with Purigen is that you don't have to keep buying more..Purigen can also be regenerated. As it adsorbs waste products, it changes color from white to brown. At that point it can be cleaned with a solution of bleach/water and be used again.

 

[Dj1ford]

Don't know if this helps but I did the same I put a piece of boxwood in my tank after soaking it in boiling water for 2 weeks and when I put it in my tank it started looking like someone had peed in it but already starting to settle and that's even after removing the carbon element from my tank, don't know if it makes any difference but I've also got about 15 plants in my 240 ltr tank the bogwood in question was 2.5kg.

 

[summit]

I second the purigen, I run it in all my planted setups with large amounts of driftwood and it works great, it lasts for a few months and you can regenerate it as well, works much better than carbon in my opinion. After time the wood will stain the water less and less, so you could always wait it out too. There is also nothing wrong with leaving the "tea" colored water, as others have mentioned its more along the lines of their natural habitat