AlyeskaGirl

Hello,

I just added some new material/plastic plants and a piece of aquarium driftwood yesterday in my 50 gal and did a 25% water change gravel vac and the tank has a yellowish tint to it.......I rinsed the driftwood off before I stuck it in and the plants. Would like some opionions on what could be the cause of it. I'm thinkin it could possibly be the driftwood and I do have a carbon insert in my filter and should just give it a few days to filter and see what happens?

sirdarksol

The color is tannins from the driftwood. Not harmful, but some people don't like the appearance. Depending on the individual piece of wood, it can take weeks or months to go away.

AlyeskaGirl

Ah, interesting......It wont bother me, now that I know what it is. Thanks!

sirdarksol

No problem. Enjoy your new decor.

AlyeskaGirl

I just did some research on how to prepare driftwood for aquariums, so took it out and have it fully submerged soaking in a plastic tub of declorinated water, And for the tank water the carbon should take of the tint from the tannins in the driftwood now that I took it out?

FL CommunityFans

I never had success with carbon taking out the tannins that were already in the water. The only thing that ever worked for me was doing 2 75% water changes every other day for 3 days while letting the driftwood cure.

David593

Yes, the yellow is from tannins. Persoinally, I don't mind it since I want S.A. fish and their water is kinda like that it the wild. It is not harmful.

However!, Did you boil the driftwood for about an hour? It is very important to boil it remove any possible fungus or nasties stuff in the wood. If you havn't, I suggest taking it out and doing so, BTW do you have a canister filter or a filter with room for a little bage of media. If so I highly recommend that you add a bag of Seachem Purigen! It is GREAT. It is like a sunstitute for carbon. It remove dyes, tannins, chemicals and it help regulate nitrites, nitrates, and ammonia. It last for quite a while (at least a month) and when it starts to exhaughts it turns a dark brown.

When it turns brown, it is completely exhausted. However, this stuff is able to be regenerated! just let it soack in bleach for a day, then soack it for 8 hours in highly concentrated dechlorizer solution. It should be white again and work like new. It's only 10 dollars and will last you a year (if you regenerate it when needed it). Heres a link:http://www.seachem.com/Products/prod...s/Purigen.html

agabr123

hm, that's interesting about the Purigen.....i'm going to have to look into that!

David593

yes I got some today. No yellow water within 2 hours. YAY AND WOW. Though I didn't have too many tannins in there as the wood didn't leach much but I was quite surprised at the results.

It seems great! I have never been dissapointed with a seachem product yet...

P.S. My LFS has a BEAUTIFUL discus tank. They say they use this in the tank, so it must be good. The package evn has a pic of a discus.