Brown water in Tank

[squidgyjohn]

Hey there people. I've got a 19g tank with 7 tetras, 4 Danios and 2 Mollies. But my question is about the water. All the photos I've seen of everyone elses tanks shows christal clear water.
When I do my weekly water change it looks clear(ish) but by the next week it has started to go brown again. My fish don't seem to mind, but I do!
I've got a root in there that I bought from the petshop, but its been in there for over a year, and I would've thought it would have stopped leaching clour into the water by now.
Could any nice person please help me get a tank half as pretty as the ones I've seen pics of on here? Thanks.
If anyone can tell me how I can post pics of my tank, then please let me know. That way you'll see what I mean.

Cheers

 

[Cheese Specialist]

The only thing I would think would be wood, but you say you've had it for years.

I am not sure to be honest. I am sure someone else will help soon.

 

[Tropjunky]

brown water might be caused by small changes like the location of the tank the water u use the food u feed them stuff like that might be insignifucant to u but when it cones to fish it could be a big deal and as for that or it could be algee and do you use carbon in the tank if not you should.

i use carbon as a Safe-guard from my sister who tries to poison my fish from time to time and carbon removes lots of stuff.

 

[squidgyjohn]

Thanks for that, I'm sure it is the wood that I put in there when I first got it , and I do use Carbon. But everything I've read about says that the brown tinge of the water should disappear if I have an active carbon filter in there. I've been changing the active carbon every 2 weeks for over a year though and it still gradually turns brown.
When its clear, it is clear but with a slight tinge. Thanks for your help though, I'll keep monitoring it.

 

[squidgyjohn]

By the way here's a pic of the tank, I cleaned it yesterday but its still got a brown tinge.
Village photos

 

[pete28]

hi im not sure if this will help at all but i was informed that before adding wood or other ornaments to the tank you should boil them and then rinse will cool water this will help remove any bacteria or other harmful things to your fish. i hope this helps

 

[Tank Commander]

I have exactly the same problem, I put it down to the wood in my tank. Or maybe you have some dodgy coloured wood, or the inside of the tank is stained brown, or something.

I have read on the forum that "Tanin" leaks from the wood quite naturally and helps to sort out some pH problems and is harmless to the fish, it also has the effect of colouring the water brown, perhaps your piece of wood is too big for the tank and the tanin colour leakage is therefore excessive.

Try taking the wood out for a few weeks, changing the carbon filter every couple of weeks cant be cheap!

 

[StanTheBetta]

i use carbon as a Safe-guard from my sister who tries to poison my fish from time to time and carbon removes lots of stuff.

What a little devil. I'd smack her

 

[Olive]

how long have you had the tank set up?


what are you feeding the fish?


how long do you leave the light on every day?


how often do you feed?


do you vacuum the gravel? how often?





just doing a little sluething to try to help you...........

 

[squidgyjohn]

I've had my tank set up for about 15 months, I got the wood before adding any fishes, I feed them once every couple of days (flake food) but have gone without feeding them for a week with no casualties. I did go 6 months without changing any of the water, and by the time I did change it the water was tres brown and murky.

I'm a lot better now though, since my newly acquired molly had a baby (only 1 - odd i know, methinks the other fish had some snacks, but heshe is safe in a floating nursery). Anyway now I feed them every day and have started a much better regime of changing about 20% of the water weekly. The light has been on from 14:00 till 00:00 every day since I had it and algae isn't a problem.

basically Im sure it is the wood (its the only brown thing in there) and I guess its just taking an excessivley long time to stop leaching tannin. Anyway the fish seem quite happy and the tetras that I got with the tank are still happy. I've had a few deaths since I had the tank (4 guppies, 2 lyre tail orange things, 2 little brown fuzzy catfish) , I guess the tetras are pretty hardcore . But I'm taking it really seriously now and making sure I keep the little beggers happy (the little baby has made me realise how uncaring I'd been).

 

[blakwidoe]

Definetly tanin, I had that prob in my 75 gal till I boilrd all the tanin out of the wood, keep boiling the wood drain boil drain boil til the tinge is gone hope this helps

 

[Olive]

I've had my tank set up for about 15 months, I got the wood before adding any fishes, I feed them once every couple of days (flake food) but have gone without feeding them for a week with no casualties. I did go 6 months without changing any of the water, and by the time I did change it the water was tres brown and murky.

I'm a lot better now though, since my newly acquired molly had a baby (only 1 - odd i know, methinks the other fish had some snacks, but heshe is safe in a floating nursery). Anyway now I feed them every day and have started a much better regime of changing about 20% of the water weekly. The light has been on from 14:00 till 00:00 every day since I had it and algae isn't a problem.

basically Im sure it is the wood (its the only brown thing in there) and I guess its just taking an excessivley long time to stop leaching tannin. Anyway the fish seem quite happy and the tetras that I got with the tank are still happy. I've had a few deaths since I had the tank (4 guppies, 2 lyre tail orange things, 2 little brown fuzzy catfish) , I guess the tetras are pretty hardcore . But I'm taking it really seriously now and making sure I keep the little beggers happy (the little baby has made me realise how uncaring I'd been).

Okay, I know I am supposed to know military time but I just want to make sure....

you keep the tank lights on from 2:00 p.m. to when?


how long has it been since you started really changing your water regularly?

 

[Flyacl]

00:00 is Midnight