Southerrrngirrl Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 I recently pulled out my old ornaments from my tank in favour of a piece of driftwood, going for a more natural look in the tank. Several days after I noticed the water had a sort of brownish discolouration. I assume this is just something leeching out of the wood, is this correct? And if so how long can I expect to have the brownish coloured water for? Should I be doing more regular water changes to get rid of it more quickly?? Is there something else I should be doing? The driftwood was purchased from LFS, and I did enquire as to what sort of preparations needed to be done before adding it to the tank. I was advised that I could chuck it straight in as all treatment and preparations had been done already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidb Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 the wood will lower the pH but shouldn't harm your fish... if you keep up with water changes you should be sweet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 you did say you wanted a more natural look! It may leech for a while then slow down. Depending on the type of fish you have, it can definitely make it look more natural. THe wood in mine gives a slightly yellow tinge to the water, which works well with the stream habitat I am going for. If the LFS sold it, it should be fine. Tis just tea! Stella Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southerrrngirrl Posted January 8, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 Yes well thats true Stella, but I'm not a big fan of the colour of the water! I thought the ph would be lowered, as I'd read somewhere that it can do that but on checking tonight, its still at or just above 7.0, where it was BEFORE I put the driftwood in. Weird. So over time it will clear is that correct? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 Some will, some won't. Frequent water changes might speed the process up. So may carbon in the filter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelj Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 Hey some people pay to have water like that. you get it for free Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoandWilly Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 dont bother adding carbon to the filter you, you wont see a difference, the best thing to use is a Bio Chem Zorb pouch, will clear up the tanins in 24hours and you can leave it in the filter for up to 6 months and have crystal clear water teh whole time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quack Posted January 8, 2007 Report Share Posted January 8, 2007 you could also use purgin, as the biochem zorb it will keep the water crystal clear and imo purgin is far better than biochem. i have a tank with lots of driftwood in and it was really bowrny coloured, purgin cleared it up in hours Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shelzie Posted January 23, 2007 Report Share Posted January 23, 2007 if you want a cheep way of fixing it just boil it for awhile, or just go into your pet shop and ask for somthing to stop the drift wood doing that, ther is a few things that will help. i have 3 very big pieces in my tank, the latest i added on the weekend. when i put the first two in the water went yuck but that ended up going away in two weeks without a water change. my letest piece i poiled it or about an hour which was hard to do because of the size, but my tank did not change colour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whiskas Posted January 23, 2007 Report Share Posted January 23, 2007 Mine did that 4 awile. I just boiled it every week or so for a few weeks, keeping it in the tank in between boilings. Now, after about 6 months of being in hte tank there seems to be no, or very little discolouration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
me love fishy Posted January 24, 2007 Report Share Posted January 24, 2007 I have bogwood from the lfs and I just soaked it in the bath for a couple of weeks, renewing the water every few days. It still leaked tannins a little but after awhile with regular water changes it disappears. IMHO I would avoid putting chemicals in your water to get rid of the colouring, since the colouration does not harm your fish in any way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southerrrngirrl Posted January 24, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2007 Yeah I try not to put any chemicals in my tank if I can avoid it. I've found with regular water changes, it seems to be clearing, its nowhere near as bad as it was so, hopefully it will be ok soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purplecatfish Posted January 24, 2007 Report Share Posted January 24, 2007 Yeah I try not to put any chemicals in my tank if I can avoid it you could also use purgin, as the biochem zorb it will keep the water crystal clear I've seen a friend use one of those products or something similar (sorry but I can't be sure which one) and it worked really well at removing the tannins. But it totally upset the balance and the tank took a dive and he lost all his fish. He now swears that he won't put anything in to remove tannins, instead he recommends patience. The colour will disappear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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