frogster221

i set up a 55 gallon freshwater tank a few months ago with some drift wood in it and i do weekly 20% water changes but the water is still brown. what should i do? i like the driftwood so i dont want to get rid of it. any suggestions are welcome.

Speedy

Hello frogster
I would take the wood back out of the tank boil it and then get a bucket and soak it overnight and if the water is still yellow or brown looking change the water and let it soak again and continue to do so changing the water in the bucket everyday until the water is no longer showing any color but if the wood is very soft and it is probably cypress wood and that type of wood could take up to a year in soaking and boiling and it could still color the water so then the solution is to use carbon in your filter. So I hope you don't have cypress wood.
Good luck.

Butterfly

Driftwood can leech tannins for absolutely months. It won't hurt the fish but some people don't like the looks Other than boiling it and soaking it time will take care of it .
Carol

Speedy

Hey butterfly
Don't mean anything by this but I disagree with you because I have a piece of cypress wood that still
leeches into the water and I have had it for years and nothing stops the leeching expect for the carbon so I gave up on that piece of wood and just took it out of the tank because I didn't like the color it made the water and I don't like to use carbon all the time in my filters.

Butterfly

Np with the disagreement Cypress and other woods that are soft or have resins(Pine, Cedar, Cypress) left in them can really cause problems in a tank. I have a beautiful piece of cedar(before I found out I shouldn't use it in my tank) that I boiled and boiled and the sap and tannins still came out so now it's a "decorative" piece of wood on a shelf. I think the softer woods deteriorate much faster than hard woods and so the tannins leech out or appear to leech out longer. Just my thoughts.
Carol

Speedy

Carol
You said you didn't recall him saying that in his thread. I knew he didn't put cypress in his thread he just said drift wood. I was just saying if he had cypress wood that it could become a problem with the leeching of the water or at least that has been my experience. I do agree with you on that softer wood does deteriorate faster.

Butterfly

yep I realized that and edited my post last night
Carol

dking271

If you do not like the look of tannins in the water, you can add Purigen to your filter. It does a wonderful job of polishing the water, and can be regenerated every few months. You should not use API Stress Coat unless you are willing to replace the Purigen instead of regenerating. It is safe to use Prime.

small-fish

i also heard that running carbon in your filter will remove tannins

frogster221

im not sure what type of wod it is i found it on the beach. well there are actually 4 pieces that i found so ill try a few thing and get back to yall. o and i did boil it once do i have to do it again?

hop2jr

I boiled mine 3 times for about 6hr each time untill the water was almost clear then soaked it for 1 week before I put it in the tanknever had a leeching problem.

pepetj

Activated charcoal does remove the "tea" color from the water, but you might need to replace it more often than usual.

I slowly lowered pH in my Angelfish tank by, among other things, filtering through peat fiber and adding peat extract -which also release tannins- got it down from 7.7 to 7.1; since I use (and replace every three weeks) activated charcoal, the water looks crystal clear.

In my Oscar and Severum tank, I have three driftwood that were at least partially cured elsewhere (at one of my favorite LFS); they have slowly, but steadily, brought pH down from 7.7 to 7.4 in a matter of three months; since I also use activated charcoal that tank is also without the "tea" color (which looks good actually, I guess it's a matter of taste, and some fish love it!).

Pepe
Santo Domingo

PS post some pics of your 55! someone might identify the type of driftwood or even tell if something else is likely contributing to keeping the brownish color in your water... or just because we love pics in fishlore!

frogster221

ill try and get some pics up but i always have trouble with it. the tank seems to be putting smaller amounts into the aquarium so i may just keep doing water changes and hope for the best and i am using carbon filters i just dont have a strong enough filter

sirdarksol

I have Mopani and Malaysian driftwood, and both of them stopped leeching into the water after a few months.
On the other hand, I've got a piece of softer (not an evergreen, but still softer than Mopani or Malaysian) that has been leeching for almost a year.