New Tank Problems =(

[Joshi39]

Finally set my 3ft up put gravel in and than added a piece driftwood my dad had found in a clean up a lady said she had used in her 4 ft fish tank but was rearranging it so she no longer wanted it. I had put it in my tank and it turned the whole tank brown! Photos follow:

Had anyone heard of chemi pure? i brougt some off the net yesterday as it can no longer be found it any shop but i was told its the best! will it help my problem??? im really not impressed with it, but the driftwood is just to good to get rid of

 

[Bluetooth]

Did you clean the gravel and wood you received? as in gave it a good scrub in hot water?

 

[Fisses]

just looks like dirt and possibly a load of tannins...

tannins will not harm your fish at all, and it will slowly dissapear with water changes. the same happened in my tank, and after a week of a daily water change it was all gone

p.s don't use chemicals, do it the natural way

 

[Joshi39]

I cleaned the gravel as best i could but i did notice wen i filled the tank up it was cloudy before puttin the drift wood in, and the wood was cleaned soaked in water for two weeks than left for a week until i addedd it yesterday. am i going to need to strip the tank down completely and clean everything??

 

[coldcazzie]

Bogwood will release tannins into the water which will turn it brown. The onyl way to get around it is to pre-soak it for a few weeks, but tbh, quite a lot of fish like to have tannins so if you can live with it it might be worth leaving it

 

[Joshi39]

hmmm i dont think i could,, i did soak the wood for two weeks both times the water was even worse, how long does it take till its gonna be clear water?? as i said i have purchased chemi-pure which is made to clear up driftwood tannins..

 

[Fisses]

Its all dependant on the size of the wood, type of wood etc, but if its in the water already, it should release the tannins pretty much straight away and will reduce over time with water changes...

and yes the fish do like tannins

 

[Joshi39]

hmmm well that helps, uhh chemi pure is similar to activated carbon but helps clog any dust particals that the filter cnt pick up, which than once they r cloged into bigger particals the filter can pick up, it supposidly works over night. even though its 9pm im gonnna do a water change now, is 50% to much?

 

[coldcazzie]

No 50% will be fine - there's not really such a thing as a too big water change...esp if you're no fish (which it doesn't look like you have in your pics)

How long did the previous lady have it in her tank for? Tannins will usually decrease over time, it may just be a case of waiting it out, but there's members on here who have had wood soaking for 6weeks + and still had huge amounts of it so I couldn't even begin to suggest how long it might take for them to vanish.

I can tell you that adding chem media wont solve the problem though - only (maybe) remove the tannins, but you'd have to keep adding it very regularly to keep up the desired effect - it would probably be easier and less money to wait for them to drop naturally...

 

[Joshi39]

True, well i have already brought chemi pure, it sits in your filter for max of six months and is fish friendly so i might add it for say a month and see hwta happens, i just did a 35% water change, looks a little better, ill just live it out i suppose,, i was hoping to add fish saturday after gettin water tested at lfs they test for everything i havent brought myself a full test kit i only hve a ph tester atm. also the wood doesnt stayon the bottom any suggestions???

 

[Schmill]

If the wood is floating and still releasing that much tannin it seems that either the previous owner didn't have it in there tank very long, (hence it's still loaded with tanins), or else your water cloud is dust from the gravel, and the wood has been out of water for so long it has dried out, and hence now floats.
With no fish in there, (if there isn't), I give the gravel a really good vigorous swish around and try to stir up as much muck as possible, (with the filter OFF), and then change as much water as possible, before refilling.

Can't comment on the chemi-pure as I've never used it, but I can say that I boil-soaked my bogwood for just a couple of days before adding it to my tank. In that time I got several buckets of water browner that tea out of the wood, but since then it's not released anything (noticable) into the tank.
HOT water seems to be key to really pull the tannins out of the wood imo.

 

[Joshi39]

Today i emptied my tank complety. wash gravel really well and put it back than rinsed tank and refilled it, now it is as clean as a whistle , i never re added the drift wood, but i might give it a good soak in hot water sooon and see what happens cause its an awesome piece of wood, even if it isnt drift wood.

 

[mattlee]

if you do go with the wood again and it stains the water then run some carbon in your filter and it will absorb the tannins if you dont like them......

 

[Joshi39]

Well my dad soaked it in boiling water all day and changed water once it went cold, and now the water is stayin clear, so stoked, but he snapped the wood =( but it should still be ok.. i brought some plants today and two guppies to see how they would go before moving my cichlids across and they are going great guns, here are some photos of the tank so far! work in progress =)

tell me what you think