Driftwood turning water brown

[aquamanis]

Hi guys, a few days ago I put a nice big piece of driftwood in my tank. I scrubbed it in the bath (the only place it would fit) and waited for it to dry (dechlorinate) and then put it in the tank. Now the water has turned tea colour and the gravel is starting to stain. Will the brown tannins eventually go away with WC,s or is there something I can filter it out with?

 

[smb]

It will eventually go away with both the filter and wc's.

Or you could put it into a pail and every couple days rinse it all out until it stops leaching.

I actually like the tannin coloration but can understand if you don't. Either way, whether you like it or not the wc's and filter will take it all out.

 

[BlackWolf0503]

Make Sure you check your water levels. my buddy put in a real nice piece of wood, it spiked his nitrites & amonias. It turned out to be a Lizard wood instead of Fish Wood. Fish got poisened. Good thing Cichlids are sturdy fish. Not one had any ill effects.

 

[gadazobe]

Is it driftwood that you found or bought?

 

[yhbae]

Also, what fishes do you have in your tank? With that much tanning, I guess your pH must be significantly lower as well. Make sure you don't have any fishes in the tank that don't like acidic water!

 

[aquamanis]

Is it driftwood that you found or bought?

I bought it from the LFS, a real bargain too. $10 for a 3 foot piece of driftwood. The PH hasn,t changed yet. But i,ve been adding some sodium bicarbonate to harden the water a bit too, I,ve got really soft water 40ppm. Now my PH is sitting on 7 all the time even with CO2 so I think everything is fine water wise, its just the colour makes the lights look dull.