Wood Leaching

[MrPotatoHead]

I have a large piece of driftwood weighed with rocks underwater in my tank for about 2 months now and I've done two 99 percent water changes and it is still leaching brown soot like stuff on the sides of the glass and also on my magnetic scrubber. I wash it off my scrubber and then like three pass and I have to wash it again from it.

My question is, what can I do for it to stop leaching this stuff or atleast speed up the process. I don't want to add my fish in it until my water is perfectly clean. Also if you can't do anything how long will it take for it to stop leaching just by itself?

[webcricket]

If the wood is actually giving off brown particles, it may be rotting. It's normal for the wood to leech tannins and discolor the water brown, but I'm not sure about it releasing pieces that you can see.

Is the wood soft at all (means it's rotting)?

Did you scrub it well then boil it for a couple of hours before you put it in the tank (even do this with store bought wood)?

[MrPotatoHead]

Well this wood is a real light wood that's on a slate, I only rinsed it before I put it in my tank because one piece of it has a rough surface on it so I didn't scrub it because I was afraid I would chip some wood off. I haven't boiled it however.

And yes after about a month of my wood being under water, I would clean the inside glass and I would get some clear brownish flakes off. After I did a water change though, there were no more flakes, but the brown soot on the sides of the glass still happened, even though the water itself looks clear, it's just after a while brown soot develops. My wood is not soft either.

[webcricket]

Hmmm...I wonder if you have brown algae/diatoms. They do clean off glass in clearish-brown /flakes. Try doing a search for pictures and see if it's anything like what you're seeing. It might not be the driftwood at all.

[MrPotatoHead]

I did a search and yeah it's definetely not that. I high doubt it's algae because I've only gotten a pair of java fern 2 days ago and with no lights, cuz I haven't gotten around buying my lights yet.

But that brown soot that covers the glass and the algae scrubber that has to be the wood no?

[dabaers]

Brown algae is a diatom that flourishs in low light/no light.
How new is your tank? This stuff grows especially in new tanks eating the silicates from new gravel and tank joints, it will go away after a while especially with the water changes you are doing.

[DeRo316]

Have you tried using carbon in your filter? I have a huge peice of driftwood and the water still gets a little murky. I do 40% changes weekly and change the carbon every month or so and my water is crystal clear!

I know you dont want to add fish until the water is clear, but the tannis wont hurt them, some even say it reduces stress.

[jay733]

Try something else.

[Star_Rider]

this is a realtively new glass tank. there are silicates in the glass, substrate etc..it is very common for brown algae(diatoms) to flourish in this situation.(also phosphates are usually present)

you can black the tank out , clean the glass etc..they will return till they have run their course(6 months to 1 year)..in bad cases I have seen clean tanks get covered in diatoms in 24-48 hrs.

I had the problem in a small tank..added oto's and no more problem.(I was cleaning the tank everyother day)