What a mess.

E

ergo sum

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Mar 15, 2005
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I picked up a gnarly piece of root last March or so and left it in the garage. A few days ago I put it in a 10g tank with some turface and flourite mixed as a substrate. I wrapped a few strands of java moss around the wood. Filled the tank with water and packed the filter with floss.

After twenty four hours the water was cloudy, grey/white. I dumped a couple of cap fulls of excel in there just for the heck of it yesterday. Now this morning the water line has gone down about a half inch. I am guessing that is just air being displaced by water. With the filter trickling on the water surface, the surface is now covered in bubbles that look something like soap scum.

I am wondering if anyone has any ideas about what is going on here?
 
you answered your own question...
Gnarly piece of root>>> no good did you soak it first?
SOunds like tannins leechin out or a toxin or sap. Did you boil it first?
 
Well I assume you are right. Most likely something is leaching out of the wood. But I am wondering what it would be? And what it would do to the water. The ph seems to be the same as the tap water.
 
If it's that heavy, dark, African root (that's what they call it here) it needs a good boil in a pot on the stove to clean it and drive off the tannins and any critters that might be on it.

Len
 
could be any number of things..the wood holds tannins and other nasties that get in it.
including bacteria..
one reason wood is soaked or boiled is to avoid these issues prior to installing the wood in the tank.
most of the nasties are not harmful some are..where did you get the wood from?
do you know what tyoe of wood it is?
 
I realize I should have soaked it or boiled it. I don’t have anything large enough to boil it in. So I just decided to stick it in an empty 10g and soak it that way. I don’t know the type of wood. I was on a job site where they removed all the prior landscaping and I just picked it up because I like the shape. I suspect it is from one of the shrubs. I’ll test the water again tomorrow to see if the ph has changed. The color of the water makes me think I have a bacteria bloom.
 
some sort of ornamental tree?shrub?

sat in the garage in storage for almost 1 year..
I've taken malaysian driftwood and stuck it in a tank with no soaking...tho I do like to soak it..I don't mind tannins.

did you wash/scrub the wood?

it does sound like a bacterial bloom of some sort..you can do daily water changes to help it clear..but if it is a bacterial bloom it should clear in a few days.
 
I changed half the water two hours ago and the problem does not seem to be getting worse. I can now see that there is a heater in the back of the tank. Though I still can’t see it clearly. I pulled the floss and it didn’t seem to be very dirty. I think I will wait a while and see if I can get the plants growing. I added some biomedia to the filter. If I can get the water clear and the plants growing I will swap out some media from the canister filter and see what happens.
 
star_rider said:
some sort of ornamental tree?shrub?

sat in the garage in storage for almost 1 year..
I've taken malaysian driftwood and stuck it in a tank with no soaking...tho I do like to soak it..I don't mind tannins.

did you wash/scrub the wood?

it does sound like a bacterial bloom of some sort..you can do daily water changes to help it clear..but if it is a bacterial bloom it should clear in a few days.
Click to expand...
Malaysian driftwood is different than a pice of a shrub from a job site sitting in a garage for a year.

Keep up with the soaking and water changes. You can also throw in a charcoal filter in your cannister for 2 weeks and let it clear things up.
 
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