Drift Wood + Bio Bag = Extremly Cloudy Water

[dave_paton]

hey everyone need some help!!!

Bought a large piece of driftwood for my tank today and the guy at the lfs said that it will leech a brown colour into the water, he also gave me a bio bag thing to prevent this.... i think it may have activated carbon in it but am unsure??

any way i put the bio bag or whatever it may be called into my filter like he said but as soon as i did this the water went from perfectly clear to foggy as anything..

i rang him and he said that it was strange that this has happened... which wasnt exactly comforting. What should i do?
Im hoping its going to be just a let it clear for a few days answer.
Appoligies if this may be a stupid question.
There are no fish in the tank at the moment.

Hope someone can help

Thanks

 

[stormy78]

hey everyone need some help!!!

Bought a large piece of driftwood for my tank today and the guy at the lfs said that it will leech a brown colour into the water, he also gave me a bio bag thing to prevent this.... i think it may have activated carbon in it but am unsure??

any way i put the bio bag or whatever it may be called into my filter like he said but as soon as i did this the water went from perfectly clear to foggy as anything..

i rang him and he said that it was strange that this has happened... which wasnt exactly comforting. What should i do?
Im hoping its going to be just a let it clear for a few days answer.
Appoligies if this may be a stupid question.
There are no fish in the tank at the moment.

Hope someone can help

Thanks

Generally its recommend to soak bogwood for a day or so before you put it in the tank. It may still leak tannins into the water but by soaking or boiling it it gets most of this out. I have a piece of bog wood that has been soaking for 3 weeks now and it is still turning the water brown! Where as my other peice of bog wood from a different source was soaked for a day and straight into the tank no problem at all.

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Dave and welcome to TFF!

The members might need a little more info in order to give you the best help. Are you preparing the tank for fishless cycling or does it already have fish?

I think stormy's advice is spot on - different instances of woods used underwater can have wildly different amounts of tannins that leach out into the water. Some members report that they repeatedly pour boiling water over their wood and then leave it to soak the rest of the day (in a bucket etc.) and then repeat that daily for weeks, the goal being fairly clear water at some point. As he reports, sometimes people are lucky and the wood is ready to go.

If your packet contains carbon (aka activated carbon, aka activated charcoal) then it is correct that this adsorbs tannins and helps to remove the yellow tannin color from your tank water. However, if you are unlucky and have one of those pieces of wood that would take weeks of the boiling treatment, then trying to do the same with carbon would be expensive and take potentially what seems like forever. Carbon is, however, the correct media for removing tannins.

If your packet does not contain carbon, but something else ("bio-bag" is not a term that tells anyone anything!), say ammo-chips or something that converts ammonia to ammonium, then the bag could potentially be a big headache for you. Depending on your answer to my question at the top, you might get false readings on your ammonia testing and have trouble making the correct decisions in your fishless or "fish-in" cycling process.

One more thing: Did you rinse the "bio-bag" before using it? All those types of substances, carbon, ammo-chips etc. will have potentially large amounts of dust when you get them and can cloud the tank and add debris to your filter.

Good luck and let us know!
~~waterdrop~~ (enthusiastic newcomer myself!)

 

[dave_paton]

Hi Dave and welcome to TFF!

The members might need a little more info in order to give you the best help. Are you preparing the tank for fishless cycling or does it already have fish?

I think stormy's advice is spot on - different instances of woods used underwater can have wildly different amounts of tannins that leach out into the water. Some members report that they repeatedly pour boiling water over their wood and then leave it to soak the rest of the day (in a bucket etc.) and then repeat that daily for weeks, the goal being fairly clear water at some point. As he reports, sometimes people are lucky and the wood is ready to go.

If your packet contains carbon (aka activated carbon, aka activated charcoal) then it is correct that this adsorbs tannins and helps to remove the yellow tannin color from your tank water. However, if you are unlucky and have one of those pieces of wood that would take weeks of the boiling treatment, then trying to do the same with carbon would be expensive and take potentially what seems like forever. Carbon is, however, the correct media for removing tannins.

If your packet does not contain carbon, but something else ("bio-bag" is not a term that tells anyone anything!), say ammo-chips or something that converts ammonia to ammonium, then the bag could potentially be a big headache for you. Depending on your answer to my question at the top, you might get false readings on your ammonia testing and have trouble making the correct decisions in your fishless or "fish-in" cycling process.

One more thing: Did you rinse the "bio-bag" before using it? All those types of substances, carbon, ammo-chips etc. will have potentially large amounts of dust when you get them and can cloud the tank and add debris to your filter.

Good luck and let us know!
~~waterdrop~~ (enthusiastic newcomer myself!)

I see, thanks for the reply. The cloudy water has cleared up back to normal this morning, so thats one good thing. The piece of bog wood has been placed into my tank already, as i bought it from my fish store and it was already been in one of the tanks there, so no tannins are present at the moment but i wont speak to soon as its just as likely that i will wake up tommorow and my water will be brown.

My tank has had water in it for about 2 weeks with the filter on he said to come back today and get some fish, Just these little yellow ones and only four of them to start my cycle he thinks.

Il also ask him today what exactly was in that mystery bag in my filter, sorry for the use of Bio bag haha!!, im still cathing up with all the lingo and didnt no how else to describe it.

Il post today what stuff is in the bag and what fish he gives me

Thanks for all your help, and stormy aswell for the advice

 

[waterdrop]

Sorry to report that if you followed through, you probably just got the most classic and worst bit of LFS misinformation possible: they are sending you home with fish to an uncycled tank.

Unfortunately the fish you bring home will be in danger of either dying or having damaged gills for life or else you will be subjected to a very difficult schedule of daily or more water changes in order to keep them alive while performing a "fish-in" cycle.

You can read about this in the pinned articles at the top of this forum. I suggest the link "Beginner Resource Center", then click "Cycling Resource Center" and then read articles by Miss Wiggle and AlienAnna. Also if you read and search other threads here in the "New" forum you will see that probably the most frequent advice sought and given pertains to the "fishless cycling" of aquariums and much information and help is available.

Sorry not to have quite caught your situation right when you asked about the bogwood!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[dave_paton]

Sorry to report that if you followed through, you probably just got the most classic and worst bit of LFS misinformation possible: they are sending you home with fish to an uncycled tank.

Unfortunately the fish you bring home will be in danger of either dying or having damaged gills for life or else you will be subjected to a very difficult schedule of daily or more water changes in order to keep them alive while performing a "fish-in" cycle.

You can read about this in the pinned articles at the top of this forum. I suggest the link "Beginner Resource Center", then click "Cycling Resource Center" and then read articles by Miss Wiggle and AlienAnna. Also if you read and search other threads here in the "New" forum you will see that probably the most frequent advice sought and given pertains to the "fishless cycling" of aquariums and much information and help is available.

Sorry not to have quite caught your situation right when you asked about the bogwood!

~~waterdrop~~

Ah yes you are right he has sent me home with fish for a fish in cycle, i went through it last night with some good advice from miss wiggle and stormy. They to were disapionted to here about my newbish mistake.
The fish are doing good at the moment, ill keep testing my water daily and if anything goes wrong (im counting on that it will) ill either jump on here for help from you guys or call him.

He is an independant, small aquarium owner who really enjoys his clients coming back so i hope his advice is good.

Thanks for you reply