Mopani Wood Still Staining Water

[emilythestrange]

my water in the tank still always looks a dark colour, the 3 pieces of mopani wood have been in there for a year now, i soaked them for 3 days before i put them in and i change 20% of water every week, the water only looks slightly lighter for a couple of hours then it returns to the "tea stained" look.
 
I dont want to remove the wood as the shrimps and snails love it.
 
does anyone have any suggestions?
 
Many thanks in advance

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Personally, I love the look but not everyone does.


To remove tannins from the water, this would be a time that carbon is actually appropriate in the filter long term. Get some activated carbon, place it inside a mesh bag, and drop it into your filter. The tannins will take a while to clear, but they will. When you notice that they aren't clearing anymore, replace the carbon.

 

[Stimo]

like eagle has said i would try using carbon in my filter

 

[ech0o]

Yea carbon works great for tannins, or something similar like purigen.  Carbon is cheaper and certainly works fine, purigen is more effective for tannins in my experience, but at the cost of a fairly pricy product.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

The issue with purigen though, is that if you aren't careful how you set it up, you can starve out your beneficial bacteria and once its done adsorbing, the ammonia spikes on you.

 

[emilythestrange]

I have the U3 internal filter which has an empty blue box in the middle at the moment, any places that anyone recommends to buy carbon from? how will i know that its safe for fish?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

If you buy it from the LFS you can feel confident.  It should be available either loose or in a mesh bag already.  If you have some mesh of your own, you can buy the loose stuff, as its a better deal, if not then the pre-bagged is fine.
 
Stuff like this: http/www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Activated-Carbon-Granulated-2-4mm-Aquarium-Internal-Filter-External-Filter-Media-/190962258244?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Fish&var=&hash=item2c763cd144

Or this: http/www.petsathome.com/shop/carbon-filter-media-in-net-by-love-fish-111165

 

[KirkyArcher]

Hi Emily, the blue box should be filled with a biological filter media such as Fluvals' own Biomax available for about £3-4, this will greatly improve the water quality on its own (removing more ammonia). From your sig photo the water looks a little green rather than brown, green water is usually caused by ammonia spikes that are not always detected during water testing, a large water change of about 80% followed by a 4 day blackout and a further 80% water change afterwards will rid your aquarium of this tinge, but if you're certain that it's from your wood I'd still recommend a few larger percentage water changes 60-80% You can buy the Polycarb inserts for the U3 @ about £5,

 

[emilythestrange]

that picture is pretty old sorry. it looks really brown at the moment. i think i took that pic after a water change and with some old plants in

 

[Ryan10]

Mopani would takes a long time to leach out it's tannins.  I boil mine and let it soak for weeks and it still stains the water.   Keeping up with my water change schedule helps a lot.  I do them weekly and it keeps the water pretty clear.