Bogwood Water 'tinge'..

[The Taffy Apple]

Morning all, hope this quick thread finds you all well..

Anyway, started my fishless cycle on my 110 litre tank a day or two ago (lightly planted, Fluval 205 external filter, 50cm piece of natural bogwood)... i left the bogwood to soak out the back for a day, then gave it a thorough clean with the hose pipe before it went in, but the water has taken on a very noticeable light brown 'tinge' now that i have turned my heater up..

How long can i expect it to last? (i have 1 bag of carbon in my external filter).
As always, any help highly appreciated.
Terry.

 

[Warehouse]

Hi Terry, the carbon filters are not supposed to last more than a day, if that. They will remove the colour, but you might have to put new ones in to do that.

 

[The Taffy Apple]

Hi Terry, the carbon filters are not supposed to last more than a day, if that. They will remove the colour, but you might have to put new ones in to do that.

Cheers Warehouse, appreciated. I suppose regular water changes would get rid of the colour, but as i'm cycling the tank it would be a waste of time (?).

Regards,
Terry.

 

[Kesaph]

Yes it would be a waste of time and more importantly, water!
There are some people who say that the tanins released by the bogwood are actually beneficial for certain fish types, presumably those which come from a tanin rich environment (perhaps South American river fish?). There are also some people who find the brown tinge to be aesthetically pleasing in a planted tank setup, again perhaps it is more representative of a 'natural' biotope environment.

 

[moochy13]

i soaked my 3 pieces for 4 days, and boiled them a couple of times, but i had tannins for nearly a month. however, i very much liked the effect it had.

 

[Aqua Tom]

Boil the bogwood before putting it in the tank.

 

[ian]

Carbon tends to last more than a day, in really hard water areas it will max out at about 3-4 days, softer water about 2 weeks, according to research. If you want super clear water super quickly, then i would go for Seachem Purigen, this stuff makes your tank crystal clear.

+ up your water changes.

 

[Neon Squid]

I've got a 30cm bit of bogwood in my tank, I've soaked it for over 4 weeks. Boiled it over 10 times in a bucket, and after 7 days or so my water still gets that yellow/brown tinge. It gets longer each time before the water turns coloured but it still does. It hasn't seemed to have any adverse effects on my fish but water changes do help make the water clear again.

 

[KittyKat]

There are some people who say that the tanins released by the bogwood are actually beneficial for certain fish types, presumably those which come from a tanin rich environment (perhaps South American river fish?). There are also some people who find the brown tinge to be aesthetically pleasing in a planted tank setup, again perhaps it is more representative of a 'natural' biotope environment.

I am one of the first, and the latter too. At least in my experience of keeping fish, I have often been able to see a definite difference between many South American fish in tannin-rich water and in plain tap water. No, I can not honestly say what actually caused the difference.. it could be the tannins themselves or maybe it is the affect it has on proteins and amino acids, or maybe even it was the lowered pH? At any rate, the fish who come from blackwater rivers really do seem to do better in blackwater from what I have observed.

Carbon tends to last more than a day, in really hard water areas it will max out at about 3-4 days, softer water about 2 weeks, according to research. If you want super clear water super quickly, then i would go for Seachem Purigen, this stuff makes your tank crystal clear.

Link please?

 

[ian]

Link please?

http/web.archive.org/web/20010211125618/www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/aqfm/1998/may/features/1/default.asp

http/web.archive.org/web/20000918065819/http/www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/aqfm/1998/june/features/1/default.asp

granted, this is in Salt water, i will search out the other info on it. I really should save these links i read lol. It was research done by a local water company.

 

[waterdrop]

Both things are clearly quite variable. The amount of time before a piece of wood releases fewer tannins depends on the piece of wood. I have one that's been soaking on the back patio about a year and it still makes the water dark.

The time it takes to saturate a carbon bed depends on what's in the water to be adsorbed and the size of the carbon bed. Searching old threads over the years, 3 days is one of the most accepted pieces of information but since carbon just presents a volume of charged surface area and the types of charged molecules that might cling there vary in size and type, it stands to reason that 3 days is very much just a point on a graph.

I can't remember if Bignose and the others ever did a thread on this over in the scientific section. Anyone remember?

WD
edit: thanks for the links ianho, that'll be good reading!

 

[ian]

I think it may have been Bignose that also provided a link to Activated carbon. There also was a internet myth (which i also believed) that carbon leached back into the water after an amount of time as well. That has also been disproved, but again i can't find the research lol.

I shall now save links to these things.

 

[waterdrop]

Oh, the leakback thing was discussed I believe in one of those bignose threads (apologies for calling it by his name, I just remember he participated in it in the science section) and from what I remember it made complete sense: any given chemical that gets charge attached to the activiated carbon surfaces reaches a balance point of the maximum the carbon can take up. It can go a little above that balace point for a short period but will leach back to the balance point if the carbon (with the vast majority of the chemical adsorbed to it) is not removed. The little bit of leaching back to the balance point is tiny compared to the amount of the tannin, med or whatever chemical has aleady been pulled out of the water. (we should be able to find this one in the science section...)

WD

 

[The Taffy Apple]

Many thanks for all your help, it seems i may have to live with the effect, which in turn is actually quite pleasing, if a little too strong at the moment.

I really wasn't going to add a carbon bag into my filter baskets, but i followed advice from here and did so, maybe i will change it the middle of the week (expensive things though, 7 British pounds for 3 bags! ).

Sincere regards,

Terry.

 

[Geoff-]

I put a bag of biochem zorb in my tank filter and it has been crystal clear for the last couple of months. supposed to last much longer than carbon and it certainly seems to be doing a good job. previous to that the water was going very murky with bogwood tannin, zorb has knocked it right out.