Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping Help and Advice => Fish Tank Plant Advice => Topic started by: AndreaC on September 21, 2014, 04:23:07 AM
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Hi Everyone. Yesterday I put plants and driftwood into my tank and this morning when I got up the water was a yellow/brown color- I'm assuming from the driftwood. I understand that this is normal but it doesn't look all that great... Does anyone know how long it'll be like this? Is there some way to prevent it?
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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
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The tannins are actually beneficial to the fish but they do spoils the aesthetics of the tank!!
Depends on your personal preference really - some fishkeepers actively encourage a degree of discolouration in the water through the addition of things like peat and dead tree leaves because this more closely represents the water conditions some fish naturally live in. If you Google 'blackwater tank' you should see loads of examples & here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4DaP8HQyBU) is an interesting video.
Personally I do like a little colouration to the water, but not too much :)
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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.
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Keep an eye on your pH during the cycle. Tannins acidify the water and could drop your pH. When you have fish you'll be doing regular water changes to remove the tannins but they could build up during cycling.
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Okay thanks Sue :)
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Jumping on this thread for a second ... :)
Will a PH treatment ( ie proper PH 7.0 ) balance out the acidity ok ?
If so, are we talking a daily addition ?
Just added some driftwood but am now a touch concerned for my Mollys after checking what ph they like :S
Cheers
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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 :)
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Thanks Andrea
I was more concerned about an initial PH drop due to the tannin release rather than a long term thing.
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Tannins leach out of bogwood slowly; they will affect the pH slowly not in a big jump.
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Thanks again all! :)
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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 :-[