New driftwood

[Mathew1991]

Will new drift wood leave a film on tank glass

The glass seems to be very dirty

 

[Magnum Man]

It can stain your biofilm

 

[Mathew1991]

What should I do

 

[Mathew1991]

Since putting it in the glass is very dirty and there is lots of tiny particals flowing around

 

[Magnum Man]

you should be able to just wipe it off

 

[Wills]

You should be able to just wipe it off - add some filter floss to your filter and if you need to some Seachem purigen will help with the tannins.

Wills

 

[Mathew1991]

Can anybody recommend a think magnetic glass cleaner as my drift wood is close to the glass in places so a thin one would be great go get around

 

[Magnum Man]

you can't get much thinner than the razor blade on a handle type...

Amazon.com

but of magnetic ones, this is pretty tiny...

Amazon.com

sometimes you need a little extra reach...

Amazon.com

 

[Mathew1991]

Will adding a sponge filter into the tank help

 

[Magnum Man]

I think you need a mechanical filter with media smaller than the particles you are seeing, unless you just want to let it settle out in a few days, which will likely happen, if you let it

 

[powerdyne6]

Not sure what wood you actually have but in my case I added 4 big pieces of Manzanita Wood to my tank. When they were first introduced to the tank the water would become stained from the tannins (quite dark actually)

I would do my weekly water changes but towards the end of the week it would become darker and darker again.

Now after about a month and half of being in the tank I think the wood has finally stopped/slowed down releasing tannins and the water isn’t stained as much at the end of the week. (If that makes sense)

Just keep that in mind. Some wood will take days to stop releasing tannins and some will take weeks/months or may never stop.

 

[AlexT]

Everything you are describing Matthew, for me, is part of the attraction and reason why I have driftwood. Makes the whole aquarium more natural.

 

[Ram419]

I've always boiled my driftwood before using so never had a lot of tannins in the water.

 

[Magnum Man]

I got a couple pieces of what looked like nice driftwood, & it leached tannins like crazy, turned my tank to Coffee, at the weekly water change, this after soaking it for a week before putting it in my tank... so I pulled it out & boiled it for most of a week, alternating between soaking & boiling, changing the water daily, in the biggest kettle we have... still it turned my tank blackwater dark, it's been in my tank for 4-6 months, & still turns my water darker than I like before water changes... it's starting to get better... staining was a reddish brown, not sure what kind of wood it is, but the type of wood makes a difference

 

[Mathew1991]

The stuff I got was red moor root