Driftwood help!!!!

[uncledave]

Just setup a new tank with driftwood. I have great filteration but my water smells like a rotting pond? Could the driftwood be the cause??

Thank you for the help

 

[DasArab]

Where did you get the driftwood from? Is it dark or light in colour?

 

[uncledave]

it is dark now that it is in the water

 

[jackel]

i allways boil mine to kill every thing and get some of the tannings out.

 

[Merbeast]

You just set up the tank? That means it is not cycled yet. It takes a while for the filters to grow the bacteria to alter the wastes in the water. The wood is currently adding to the bio load. Wait, do small water changes, and if the smell is too bad, add activated carbon to the filters. There are also products out there that will decrease the amount of time it will take to cycle the tank (Bio-Spira and Cycle are some examples). Good luck

 

[doug67]

You just set up the tank? That means it is not cycled yet. It takes a while for the filters to grow the bacteria to alter the wastes in the water. The wood is currently adding to the bio load. Wait, do small water changes, and if the smell is too bad, add activated carbon to the filters. There are also products out there that will decrease the amount of time it will take to cycle the tank (Bio-Spira and Cycle are some examples). Good luck

Also,It's not a good idea to have wood in a african tank.It makes it harder to stabalize the ph.The wood softens the water and lowers the ph.
Good luck

 

[DasArab]

Yes sometimes you get a bad smell with new tank set ups, once they have cycled a tank should have(well in my opinoin) a sort of earthy smell.

 

[doug67]

it is dark now that it is in the water

Tank looks great!-Like the river rock

 

[Jkoziatek]

must be a pain in the a*s to clean with those rocks... but yeah driftwood will smell, you might want to take it out and boil it... and doug is right about the africans

 

[uncledave]

Thanks for all the advise on the smell issue.

I did boil the wood before. I figured out that the smell was a combination of: Newer tank setup, one side of the tank water was getting stagnant since I had one filter shut off for a few days and the use of well water that had a high level of sulfur. It has been corrected and the smell is gone.

Thanks again on the compliments