Wondering why I’m having a hard time keeping one of my tanks clean. I have a 40 breeder with a 3” flowerhorn a 5” oscar and a 2” lemon Oscar I have a marineland 350 biowheel filter. I do 40% water changes 3 times a week. Only thing I can think of isn’t bacteria blooms. Water turns a yellow/ orange color. I have a piece of driftwood in there I boiled it and soaked it for 2 weeks and the tannins seemed to disappear just looking for solutions
Cloudy water
- Thread starter Dc628
- Start date
How’s ur water quality? Are u using a dechlorinator? Are u gravel vacuuming? Removing dead plants and left over food? Foam on the water surface? What was ur water schedule prior to the color change?
Would remove the wood and resoak to see if it’s leaching out tannins and check the water color after just to make sure. Would check the water parameters. Would reduce ur water changes to twice a week.
Would remove the wood and resoak to see if it’s leaching out tannins and check the water color after just to make sure. Would check the water parameters. Would reduce ur water changes to twice a week.
how long tank been running? and goes with out saying tank small for what you have and as it stands is over stocked already at that size. tannin can take 2 to 4 weeks to leach out.
Pictures might be helpful. But given your water is turning tannin colored I'm going to agree it's probably tannins, and the only likely place for that to come from is the wood.
If the noted driftwood is Malaysian, the tannins will leach eternally. Mine still stain water after six years.
I'd say it's the wood, tannins can leach out no matter how well the wood is soaked or boiled up. The tannins won't harm the fish but that sized tank, long term, WILL! I see you're only young, are you new to the hobby? Do you realise how big those three fish will get? Have you got any plans to upgrade their tank? Only very recently we had a thread about oscars and tank size and it got rather heated. It's a very touchy subject.
The tannin from the wood is beneficial to fish.
The tank is just on the very overstocked side and it won't get any better as the fish grow. I wouldn't be certain that even one of these fish alone would make it long term in that size tank. Do you have larger tanks to move them on?
The tank is just on the very overstocked side and it won't get any better as the fish grow. I wouldn't be certain that even one of these fish alone would make it long term in that size tank. Do you have larger tanks to move them on?
The color seems to indicate its most likely tannins, coz as others have pointed out, boiling etc might get some of it out but rarely all of it, for that only time will solve your tannin problem and maybe something like carbon or purigen added to the filter if it irritates you that much...
Only other option would be to remove the wood and soak it in a separate tub till most of the tannins leech out, but that could be anywhere from weeks to years depending on the piece of wood...
Final note, the more tank water in relation to the wood will also helps dilute the color so that it wont be as obvious so quickly i.e having 40G of water vs say 200G+ Will make a huge difference to the tea stained color you see now...
Only other option would be to remove the wood and soak it in a separate tub till most of the tannins leech out, but that could be anywhere from weeks to years depending on the piece of wood...
Final note, the more tank water in relation to the wood will also helps dilute the color so that it wont be as obvious so quickly i.e having 40G of water vs say 200G+ Will make a huge difference to the tea stained color you see now...