Brownish Coloured Water

[wilsonian]

I know bog wood can change the water colour but besides doing frequent water changes is there anything I could do to remove the brown colour in my water?

 

[saltynay]

Soak the wood before introduction to the tank, Frequent water changes and Carbon in the filter.

 

[Hawkins]

boil the wood in a pan of water, although it will still leak some tannins into the water
carbon in the filter is the best way

 

[wilsonian]

many thanks for that. I'll try adding the carbon later this week when I do the water change.

 

[mark1979]

dont use carbon!!

i would advise seachem purigen.i have 6 huuge bits of mopani in my tank and took the colour out in a day!!

its not cheap but does the job,plus you can recharge it and use it again.

 

[JenCliBee]

dont use carbon!!

i would advise seachem purigen.i have 6 huuge bits of mopani in my tank and took the colour out in a day!!

its not cheap but does the job,plus you can recharge it and use it again.

Why not use carbon?, adding extra chemicals unessersary is pointless when the actual tannins are harmless in the first place... water changes and pre soaking/boiling the wood would be far better

 

[mark1979]

dont use carbon!!

i would advise seachem purigen.i have 6 huuge bits of mopani in my tank and took the colour out in a day!!

its not cheap but does the job,plus you can recharge it and use it again.

Why not use carbon?, adding extra chemicals unessersary is pointless when the actual tannins are harmless in the first place... water changes and pre soaking/boiling the wood would be far better

i boiled and soaked my mopani for 6 weeks,and it still released tannins!!

i no they are harmless,i just dont like them discolouring the water

wont carbon release stuff back into the water once its deactive? seachem purigen wont!! it keeps it in until you recharge it

 

[saltynay]

No carbon removes heavy metals and other trace elements it has virtually no bad side effects that I know of and once the carbon sponge is a week old it will act as biological filtration media.

 

[Bungy]

The general consensus of oppinion is that Carbon will certainly do the trick but as has been mentioned it will letch back into the tank once its life has been exhausted - replacing it every few weeks is recommended therefore its an added overhead to your running costs. Your bogwood will eventually slow down the tannin release but is completely harmless and helps to reduce the PH if you are keeping soft water species.

 

[saltynay]

The carbon in the filter only as to be run for the initial 1-2 weeks after that the tannins will be so slowly released that water changes will remove them easily.

 

[Darkstar]

i would advise seachem purigen.i have 6 huuge bits of mopani in my tank and took the colour out in a day!!

purigen is a far better product than carbon....when taking pics of my fish I wouldn't use anything else.

 

[Infidel_Uk]

i have used carbon filters ive soaked wood in boiling water, ive tried water changes, but some wood never stops leaking into the water , it totally depends on the wood , and your patience , but at the end of the day , a little brown in the water is no biggy , least not to me

 

[snowflake311]

Carbon works great if it's fresh. So you need to change your carbon every 3 months or more for it to work best. It takes months to years for the tannins to stop leaking out. I soaked my one large chunk for 3 months in steaming hot water. I even scrubed it. It still leaks. My other tank has been set up a year and it will still get a tint but not bad. But I have grown to like the look better then super white clear. It looks great with live plants. Fish even like it.

 

[wilsonian]

TBH I don't mind the tint but I was worried it might be due to poor water filteration.