kld2113

Hi all,
I was wondering if someone could help me out. I added a piece of driftwood to my 10g tank and now the water is a tinted red (even after 2-3 weekly water changes). I had soaked the driftwood for 30 min before putting it in the tank but felt I couldnt wait longer since the high pH was killing my fish. How can I get the water color back to normal?

thanks for your help

zeebo

Hi kld2113,

I had to soak mine for many, many weeks. 30 mins is insufficient.
The tint generally will not affect yr fish. I hope you have used boiling water (to kill bad stuff) on yr driftwood b4 adding it into yr tank .

U can either keep with the water changes or use Purigen (its expensive but).



Excerpts from http://www.fishtanktutor.com/be-care...ur-aquarium-ph

Some Safe Ways to Lower Your Aquarium pH

There are some alternatives to chemicals to lower you tanks pH. Adding driftwood or bogwood to your tank can have a lowering effect. Pumping CO2 through your tank can lower you aquarium pH. Make sure your aquarium gravel is neutral. Crushed corals and other substrates can raise your aquarium pH. Using peat to lower your aquarium ph has also proven effective.


Good Luck.

Chief_waterchanger

Just keep at the waterchanges. It will go away in time. (It is ALWAYS best to avoid using chemicals if you can.)

Shawnie

Im sorry for the loss of your fish...How old is the tank and fish init? ph usually wont kill if the fish were acclimated unless it was way abnormal...what are your ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates? as zeebo said, driftwood needs to be boiled and soaked for some time before adding it to the tank...

RobinOfTT

I'm planning to add a pleco to my tank, so I bought a piece of driftwood while at the LFS looking to buy a pH tester. When I tested and realized I had high pH, I immediately started the wood boiling. I had it boil for about 5 hours, and it has since been soaking in water siphoned from the tank for about a day now.

After reading many forum threads about not panicking over high pH, I'm no longer in a rush to add the driftwood. So how long should I let it soak/boil some more?

Butterfly

Depends on the piece of wood. Some leech tannins longer than others. Just keep doing water changes until the water it's soaking in remains clear. But the fish won't mind the tannins and I think its kind of cool looking.The tank I set up at work has a piece of wood that is coloring the water and everybody likes it and was a little disappointed when they found out eventually it would clear up.
Carol

RobinOfTT

Thx Carol, I'll no doubt add it then on my next water-change

KyWildFish

Ive been soaking mine for several days (if not weeks) and about 3 days ago the water cleared. I then added some de-chlorinator and some bio-boost and the next day the water was really yellow, with what I thought were tannins. Did either of the chemicals/probiotics I added cause the color change or is it normal for tannins to suddenly stop leaching out then start again?

Also, the piece is fairly large and mounted, but unfortunatly floats. The slate they mounted it on from the LFS seems way to small. Aside from using substrate, what other methods can be used to weigh it down?

(first post)