Getting Rid of Tanin

[Barday]

Hi All,

I recently added a new peice of bogwood to my tank. I soaked it for a couple of days before putting it in, but obviously the tannin still coloured the water. Anyway to get rid of it, I did a 50% waterchange and added an active carbon filter to my Fluval 3 plus.

The problem is that the tannin will not go! I would have thought that the carbon would have soaked it up in a few hours. It's been in there for 3 days and It hasn't really made a difference......... Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[Ava_Banana]

When we put ours in we boiled it in fresh water ten times, then soaked it for a week.

It still stains the water (although not very much).

I would recommend the boiling though......lots came out.

ms

 

[squidlips]

it will depend on the age of the wood will determen the amount of soaking or boiling. if its an oldy it wont take long. if fresh it can take forever .

 

[Barday]

Hmmmm...........but still shouldn't the carbon be removing the colour?

 

[Nidge]

Carbon will remove all tanins from the water yes.

 

[squidlips]

mabe if you took the wood out and it only had to clean the remaining water but NOT if it is being leached into your aquarium constantly. it wont stop the tanin coming out of the wood so how can it clean your water huh?

 

[Barday]

Ah, That's what i was thinking too . I thought/hoped that the carbon would soak it up faster than the wood would release it, if you know what i mean!

 

[squidlips]

Ah, That's what i was thinking too  . I thought/hoped that the carbon would soak it up faster than the wood would release it, if you know what i mean!

exactomundo. i have handled and soaked sold and used heaps of it .it may but i think you would need a lot and a very high flow rate to keep up some wood leaches heaps like a reel lot

 

[Cavafish]

we kept ours in a storage tub of cold water for several weeks before adding it and it leached yes, but not too badly. The Juwel filter cleaned it up in no time. Maybe you need to just soak it for longer until the major leaking is over.

Our problem was making it sink........... even after weeks of soaking we had to drill loads of holes in it to let the air out and weigh it down with a rock (bit dodgy, it could have tipped.)

 

[squidlips]

we kept ours in a storage tub of cold water for several weeks before adding it and it leached yes, but not too badly. The Juwel filter cleaned it up in no time. Maybe you need to just soak it for longer until the major leaking is over.

Our problem was making it sink........... even after weeks of soaking we had to drill loads of holes in it to let the air out and weigh it down with a rock (bit dodgy, it could have tipped.)

thats because you had it in cold water .....hot water expands wood and that is how the air and tanin is expeled. cold traps the two

 

[Barday]

Mine didn't have any problems sinking, to tell you the truth it sank as soon as I put it in water, oh well!

Looks like i'm just gonna have to leave the carbon in for a bit longer than expected. I know it says on the pack to only have it in for a max of 3-4days, but will it harm the fish if I left it in for quite a bit longer, maybe 3-4 weeks??

 

[squidlips]

try to imagin up to a year or so of leaching. a few weaks

 

[Barday]

A YEAR !

I Didn't know it would take that long, when I set up my other tank, it cleared up within about a month max. But as you mentioned earlier it depends on the age of the wood right! I'm just prayin that this is old wood! Is there any way to tell?

 

[Timmy]

I've got some bogwood that's 10+ years old and it still leaches brown stuff

 

[Barday]

OMG r u serious, I'd go crazy if i had a brown tank for 10 years!

I just can't wait for crystal clear water again!