Tannin in water

mary lance

My daughter has just bought a 200 L tank and has added 2 pieces of driftwood. She has the correct size filter. Tha water colour is very brown and I presume it's the tannin leaching out of the wood. I have emptied the tank once and soaked the wood for a week hoping this would fix the problem but it's back the same as it was if not worse. Obviously we haven't put any fish in yet. Has anyone any ideas on how to get rid of the tannin out of the water other than not having any wood in there?

Dizlal

You could try some carbon in the filter, but you maybe need to soak it longer to let the tanin leech out. As far as i'm aware it won't do any damage to any inhabitants. 8)

Amphitrite

Hi Mary, and welcome to fishforum.com :D

I recently added a piece of driftwood to my tank and found that I had to soak in a bucket for two weeks beforehand, changing the water in the bucket on a daily basis.

I would recommend that you take it out of the tank and do that for a while.

Katherine :)

Oceane

Hi Mary i normally soak my driftwood in chlorine based bleach for a week, then in clear water that i change daily for 3 days, it usually does the trick. Tannin is not bad for fish specially south american cichlids, the water just looks brownish...

crazie.eddie

The tannins will lower the pH and soften the water, which is not bad, if you have hard water with high pH. Unfortunately, it's unsightly to look at, since it turns the water yellow to almost tea brown.

Boiling the wood will release majority of the tannins.

Tracy

I have a piece of driftwood, also. I only soaked it in a bucket of water for a few days, then put it into the tank. It's been in there about 5 weeks and the water is still somewhat tea coloured, although it was much worse looking before my last water change. In time it will quit giving off the colour.

Oceane

It takes a long time to clear, my Oscar tank was tea coloured for nearly a year inspite of regular water changes, the fish didn't mind one bit.

crazie.eddie

Frequent water changes and using carbon media will help remove it from the water. Unfortunately, you need to replace the carbon media frequently as well.