Driftwood Making My Water Yellow

Hi,

I had the same problem. The discolouration is caused by the tannins n the wood. It can take months to clear and the longer you leave it in the tank the darker the water will go. The best thing to do is soak it in a bucket, changing the water daily until it remains clear or only slightly coloured. Your filter should be able to cope with removing a small amount of discolouration but you will need to have carbon in it to do this.

The tannins are actually beneficial to the fish but they do spoils the aesthetics of the tank!!

Hope this helps.

FC76

Okay well I've already tied a whole lot of plants to the wood so I might just leave it in there and wait it out. I've got a couple of weeks still left in my cycle so hopefully by that time it will have started to get a bit better. I do have carbon cartridges in my filter but it's only a small tank so not nearly enough I guess.
I looked up the blackwater tanks and they're interesting, but definitely not what I'm going for.

Okay thanks Sue

I would personally avoid using chemical additives to balance the water acidity because that won't promote long term stability in your tank. Try to find a longer term solution such as adding decorations to the tank which will adjust your pH naturally

Tannins leach out of bogwood slowly; they will affect the pH slowly not in a big jump.

I boiled my morpani* wood for 48hrs frequently changing the water before I planted it up and added it to the tank, it does still bleed out a little but not enough to spoil the look of my tank, if I had white sand it might be a different matter.

* this turns out to be rainforest wood which I won't buy any more because of de-forestation