kirsty0569

Hello,
we are having problems with our 50 gallon tank.
We have a big piece of bogwood in the tank and have planted the tank up. The bogwood continually colours the water yellow and the light does not penetrate well. We do 20% water change weekly with RO water to try to improve the situation. The lights in the tank presently are 1x40watt and 1 x 38watt marine white light, it is a freshwater tank but our LFS advised that the brightness of the marine bulb might be an improvement on the original. Ideally, although it is a nice piece of wood, we would take out the bogwood, but this is impossible as the tank is built into a large bookcase and not enough space above to be able to take out the bogwood, plus the fish seem really happy with the caves etc that the wood provides. I wonder if there is any way of improving the lighting? Hopefully.... eventually... the bogwood may stop colouring the water as drastically as it is. Any help/advice would be really welcome!
Thank you!
Kirsty

GreenMan13

I think only time and a LOT of water changes will stop the wood from coloring the water. If there is a way to get the wood out, you could try to boil it to pull out the stuff that is coloring the water. Other then that you would just need stronger lights to penetrate the water. It wont really help you see it but it will help give plants more light. I can explain this if wanted.

If you have somewhere to put everything else that is in the tank for a few hours you could try filling the tank with hot water and then draining and repeating if the wood cant come out. It would be like boiling the wood but just in the tank. DON'T POUR BOILING WATER INTO THE TANK RIGHT AWAY THOUGH. This will potentially crack the tank glass due to the quick temperature change. You will need to slowly warm up the glass with warmer and warmer water.

kirsty0569

Thank you for your advice, after a lot of water changes and patience..... it is much clearer now. Unfortunately I couldn't do anything other than wait, I wish the LFS would have said about this prob in the first place, but never mind, all's well that ends well....;-)

Fla_Larry

also note that AC will also help in removing the coloring

agabr123

i'm glad it worked out for you