Browned Water

[lludu]

So both of my tanks are fully cycled, and are doing quite well, per say. Over the past week ive noticed my water turning a light tan / brown. Now, normally i would point the finger at startup algae bloom, excess waste, excess food, etc. But i have been doing frequent water changes, and algae bloom shouldnt be in question as the tank has cycled. I have checked my filters and while not spotless they are realtively clean. As you can see in my sigs, i mostly just have tetras in the two tanks, not a lot of poopin going on.

The only thing i can grasp at is that about 2 weeks ago i put in African Rootwood. I had the wood sitting in water to try and prevent this browning (ive heard it might change water color and to set it by itself in order to prevent this). I was told to do this by my LFS which is very well known and excellent.

So i am absolutely befuddled. Is it the rootwood? Do i have super pooping tetras, and if so why is the filter decently clean?

[OrangeCones]

Tannins can leach from wood for a lot time. Carbon will remove the color, as will water changes. If you use carbon, you'll need to change it frequently, since once carbon adsorbs (not absorbs) all it can, it is ineffective.

To eliminate the possibility it is a waste problem, I would test for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate again. Since the tank is cycled, you'll notice any changes in the readings.

[Newman]

Its probably just the tannin, although never discount the waste...
I had to boil and soak my mopani driftwwod peices for two weeks before i finally added them to my tank. i soaked in warm water, so that the tannin leeching would speed up (faster molecular movement )

ive never had a problem with this brown water.

how long did you boil for?
how long did you soak for?

I personally boiled up to 5 hours sometimes, about 3 days a week.
I soaked every single day in a ten gallon with heated water.

[lludu]

Well for all intended purposes my best guess would be the tannins still. I did not soak them as much as you have listed, and i only boiled the wood for maybe an hour and a half.

I'll look into go picking up some carbon and see if that clears it up. The water changes do clear it up to an extent but after about 3 hours the color reappears. My levels in the tank seem to be normal and i dont see a spike in nitrates or anything so tannins seems about right.

Until i pick it up i really shouldnt have to worry about the fishes' health do i? This is my first time really using the wood so i dont know how that water is really affecting the fish if at all

[Newman]

just test your pH if you know that your KH/buffering capacity is low. DW sometimes lowers pH but i dont expect it to do anything more than lower it by 1.

Carbon will indeed clear it up in a few days.

i think you shoulda boiled a bit longer and let it soak in a bucket or something.

[homebunnyj]

The tetras and even the betta will be right at home in the tannin-tinted water.

[Newman]

Agreed,
If you dont mind looking at tinted water, then black-water is actually very good for all of the fish you have in your 20 and 10 gallon tanks.

[lludu]

Alright well, its good to hear that the fish really wouldnt mind at all about the color. But i went to look into this at the store, the guy said he didnt know anything about adding carbon to it to help clear the tannins up but he suggested a Purigen Ultimate Filtration Bag which cleans the water from organic waste and problems like tannin. I put the bag in last night assuming that it would take more than a day to filter through and clean, but to my astonishment the bag completely cleaned my water over night.

Thank you for your help, and if this happens later on i might leave it the tannin color for the fish, but who knows, i like looking at the fish a lot and that was slightly annoying me

Here is a link if you want to look at the Purigen Bag (not sure if you know what that is, i sure didnt lol) Seachem. Purigen

[lludu]

Originally Posted by Newman

just test your pH if you know that your KH/buffering capacity is low. DW sometimes lowers pH but i dont expect it to do anything more than lower it by 1.

Just to let you know as a side note, the african rootwood i bought is slightly different from the normal drift wood. Rootwood does not affect the pH of the water (or shouldnt if its fully rootwood), it also sinks a lot easier than normal rootwood as it has more of a solid weight.

[homebunnyj]

Root wood is supposed to decompose quite slowly, but any wood that releases tannins will affect the ph of the water to some degree.