Can't get rid of this Brown Water!!!!!!

[Iron Buddha]

About 6th months ago i got a 55 gallon and i placed in it three medium sized mopani driftwood pieces and one malayisan one. In it i have had goruamis and african brown knife..they all have been fine, the gouramis have been removed due to the fact that the blue one became territorial and mean.

Anyway before placing the wood in the tank...i let it soaked in the bath tub of hot-warm water for 24 hours. Placed it in the tank and the water still went brown. So came here for help..and I thank you all...but it did not work. I did 50 % water changes twice...no luck. So I learned to leave with it since my ph is good and my fish are fine. Plus i clean the tank every week using a siphon on the gravel....i take out 5 gallons every week, sometimes 10 gallons. I have had a Aqeon 55 gallon filter..it's nice..i like it.


So ....maybe i need to check the intake tube on my filter.

Maybe it's not the wood...maybe it's brown algae...i say this because notice brown gunk or slime collecting on the front of my filter..around the bacterica tray...


what else could i do...should i take the wood out and boil it? ...would that ruin a pot?..smell?

 

[jschall]

About 6th months ago i got a 55 gallon and i placed in it three medium sized mopani driftwood pieces and one malayisan one. In it i have had goruamis and african brown knife..they all have been fine, the gouramis have been removed due to the fact that the blue one became territorial and mean.

Anyway before placing the wood in the tank...i let it soaked in the bath tub of hot-warm water for 24 hours. Placed it in the tank and the water still went brown. So came here for help..and I thank you all...but it did not work. I did 50 % water changes twice...no luck. So I learned to leave with it since my ph is good and my fish are fine. Plus i clean the tank every week using a siphon on the gravel....i take out 5 gallons every week, sometimes 10 gallons. I have had a Aqeon 55 gallon filter..it's nice..i like it.


So ....maybe i need to check the intake tube on my filter.

Maybe it's not the wood...maybe it's brown algae...i say this because notice brown gunk or slime collecting on the front of my filter..around the bacterica tray...


what else could i do...should i take the wood out and boil it? ...would that ruin a pot?..smell?

You were/are too impatient.

I soaked my mopani wood in hot water for almost 2 weeks, replacing the water daily, sometimes twice. It still turned my aquarium water a light yellow.

Boiling it won't ruin a pot, and won't smell strongly but you need a pot big enough for it. It'll be much faster than soaking, but you'll still have to boil it several times.

When you can soak it in a few gallons of warm water for a few hours and the water is close to clear, you're done soaking it.

 

[cypher1024]

You can try boiling or bleaching. Personally, I just put up with the brown water (tannins leeching from the wood) and did my regular weekly waterchanges until the water cleared up. It took a few months, but now it's crystal clear.

 

[jschall]

You can try boiling or bleaching. Personally, I just put up with the brown water (tannins leeching from the wood) and did my regular weekly waterchanges until the water cleared up. It took a few months, but now it's crystal clear.

If you bleach it, make sure you rinse it and then soak it in water with dechlorinater in it.

 

[Pyramid_Party]

That gunk you describe is probably brown alage and unrelated to the tannins from the wood. Just dont worry aout the tannins, sooner or later it will disappear. I had a few skinny pieces of wood and it took several months to clear up.

 

[jschall]

That gunk you describe is probably brown alage and unrelated to the tannins from the wood. Just dont worry aout the tannins, sooner or later it will disappear. I had a few skinny pieces of wood and it took several months to clear up.

Was going to mention the algae.
They're diatoms. You have silicates in your water. They'll go away eventually, especially if you start using RO water. They wipe off extremely easily.

Tannins won't harm your fish. Wait it out for a few months and do water changes like normal and they'll go away, or pull it out and boil it several times or soak it for a couple weeks in hot water.

 

[fsirico]

sometimes it takes months. mine took 6 months with constant water changes in my 450gal before it stopped leeching, now its finally crystal clear. just takes time

 

[marauders30]

yes you have to soak wood for a long time. 24 hours will definately not be enough judging by my experiences. one thing I do though to speed up the process is boil the wood for a couple hours. still sometimes it takes me up to a month

 

[revmeter]

yep from wot i undestand it takes a long tme untll your water gts clear but cloudy water wont harm your fish alot of prople on here only have one show tank and that will be the only tank with ckear water remember fish dont live clear water in the wild as long as yourlevels are fine so are your fish just be patient

 

[rnocera]

My tanks with driftwood are brown after MONTHS of soaking. One piece of driftwood I soaked in a 5 gallon bucket & did water changes on it DAILY for about a month. That piece has now been in an aquarium since May. The water in that aquarium is still so dark brown that some of my plants are dying. It's just the way things work . . .

I did find that Purigen helped me a TON. That 20 gallon was crystal clear with purigen in it, and when I took the purigen out to bleach, the tank became dark brown overnight. Can't wait to get that stuff back in that tank.