Bog Wood Problems

[lemond68]

i bought a piece of bog wood for my tank soaked it overnight and placed it in, it looked nice, the next 2 days i bough a second piece and soaked it for 6 hours and placed it in the water...

now it is brownish... checked the pH it is 6.6-6.8 (it has been 7.2 all along)

help, I am going to do a water change.... should I add baking soda, should i wait?

help!

 

[TylerFerretLord]

The wood is leeching out tannins, which are dropping your ph.

It's not harmful. Just do a few waterchanges and maybe add carbon to the filter and they should go away.

 

[lemond68]

thanks for the feedback,

i just finished a 50% water change, and will see what happens in the am.

what do you mean add a carbon filter? do you mean add another one beyond the one I have already (this a new tank and the 2 carbon filters are about 2 weeks old)

the water still has a brownish tint however, should i keep the water chnages going right now or wait until am?

 

[minxfishy]

The tannins wont hurt your fish, some even quite like it Ive heard. Providng you dont have a massive ph drop/rise this also wont hurt the fish.

If its just the look of the water that is bothering you, it will get better over time, if you already have carbon in your filter, then you dont need more, just be aware you need to change it after a while or it becomes counter productive (again so Ive read, as I dont use it, unless its to remove meds).

Maybe next time, soak/boil the wood for longer, Ive done it for weeks, then placed it in the dishwasher (with no powder) then straight into cold water, and Ive never had a piece leech, not that was noticable anyway