Could definitely be an algae bloom. Driftwood will inject your water with a bunch of organics - and possibly algae spores and other fun things along with it, so not only does the soaking leach out tannins, but it will also help rid the wood of loose pieces and some organisms too.
driftwood and africans/south americans
- Thread starter sweeTang21
- Start date
well im assuming its an algae bloom, after 4x60% water changes, the water is as if i have done nothing. Id much rather not use chemical algicides so my next venture is wraping the tank in towels or something to hold out the light. I have turned off the tank lights all ready and thats not doing much either...hopefully i can get this under control. I dont assume that its horrible for the tank, but not good either...
You can boil the wood to hasten the leaching process, although you would need a crazy pot for a 3' er.
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lol - yup, or in my case I used my bathtub for a 3+ foot piece. Filled it with the hottest water (turned the water heater up to hottest), and supplemented with boiling water. I did this for a couple hours, then scrubbed it just to get off all the loose crap. I was going to let it soak in a container for longer, but then my impatience came in and I put the wood into the tank once it cooled and just let it leach naturally - though in my case I didn't care about the further tannins leaching as this wood was for an amazonian tank anyway. 
still not much change. Water is still slightly green even after 4 days of lights out. My fish are probably not to happy with me. At any rate, 1 more decent sized water change and hopefully i can eventually get this tank up and looking good. Any recommendations on Algicides? not really a fan of chemicals but it may help. Any worries as far as harming my fish?
If you have an algae bloom, you need to wrap your tank and no light or feed for seven days. That should clear it up.
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all is getting better. Im going to need to introduce more porus rock for bacteria growth. I believe i just dont have enough media for bacteria stability. I dont have much stock otherwise. Oh well. One step at a time. Tank is cleared up back to normal. I have a thread under the south american forum with pictures. Ill be adding more tomorrow before work. Just ran out of time today. check it out and let me know what you think.
