Wood clouds up water, plants ok?

mome rath

mome rath

splatter me with mustard
Mar 23, 2003
123
0
16
44
Columbus, OH

Posted this in Gen FW, too:

I recently bought a windy piece of grape vine at the LFS and dropped it in my 40g. The next day the water was insanely cloudy. The vine was sold next to the driftwood in the aquarium supplies section, so I assumed it was pre-treated. Two days and a water change later the water is still quite cloudy, but the fish are fine. The concern I have is for the single live plant that I also recently bought, i.e. will it get enough light through the cloudy water (it's a wisteria, my first live plant).

I've never used this type of wood before, and I've never had problems with wood from the LFS clouding up the water.


Thanks,

mome rath
 
Just cloudy-ish. No real color.
 
So, white cloudy? That would suggest a bacterial bloom. They tend to happen when you make big changes to your tank, like adding gravel, IME. I had one in my 10g when I deepened the aquarium gravel. It went away with diligent water changes and time. Didn't hurt the fish any, but it's probably not good for them. Do you have Cycle? I can't say enough about that stuff for keeping down NO2 and NH3.
 
Never 'assume' anything when you are going to put something into an aquarium. LFS's get this stuff in and stick it on the shelves or in the bins 'assuming' that the hobbiest will clean/wash/boil etc. to protect the aquarium environment.

I would not put any piece of wood into a tank without at least boiling it to kill critters and reduce tannins if present, which in many cases they are. Many types of wood alter the parameters of the tank and one should check pH especially for changes.

If it was my tank, I would pull the wood and boil it for 15mins.
Large water changes will help to re-stabilize the tank and clear the water.

Len
 
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