how can i keep my water "polished"

[rockhoe14er]

My vote is for boiling the wood. Really just doing it on all the pieces of wood would reduce the yellow color a lot. I have cork in my tank and at first i got some leaching but after a month or two i really don't get much at all. The easiest solution is just make sure you have carbon in your filter and make sure you change it once a month. It'll take time but will work. If you want more immediate results then you should boil.

 

[mfgann]

...the yellowing is tannins leaching from the wood. It is a natural, normal, and expected side effect of putting wood in a tank. If you do not like the tannins, let the wood soak in a different container and change the water a lot. To remove more tannins faster, boil the wood or place in a cantainer with really hot/boiling water. Do not use a fish tank with boiling or hot water.

MTS wont change the color of the water.

+1 What coach said. Especially the mopani driftwood. I soaked that stuff for a month, and now that its added the tank still turns into tea.

Cheapest thing to do is partial water changes until it stops leaching so much. It WILL eventually stop coloring your water so dark, but it takes time. Give it a few months. I think mine started leaching tannins again because the tank water was much warmer than the bucket of water in the garage. Some people like the color, and the fish actually prefer it, from my understanding.

 

[EmilyMarie85]

Putting carbon in would definitely clear it up... but it would also remove a lot of the nutrients that you have from the water. Activated carbon works by indiscriminately binding tons of stuff in the water, and so while the tannins would get bound up, so would the ferts.
MTS probably have little to do with the problem, though if you have tons of them, that may suggest that you're overfeeding the tank a little, which allows their population to explode.

I'm not entirely sure what the best method to deal with the tannins are, but my guess would be that if you used some really strong filtration WITH carbon for a short period of time, you could clear the water and then start dosing again. if you're dosing EI, this'll fit in nicely....
So basically, you might fertilize your tank on Monday and do a big water change on Sunday, or something. Instead of doing a big water change, you could throw activated carbon in your filter (and maybe even add another big filter with carbon) on Saturday, let it run until Sunday, and then restore your tank to how it was, do the water change, and then resume dosing as usual.

You may need to repeat this cycle a few times, since the tannins leach over time.

Also, I've never purposely tried to remove tannins, nor do I dose heavily, so I'm just speculating.

Does it really??

 

[Lightning Bug]

yes, MTS is short for Malaysian Trumpet Snails.

a "diatom" filter would work to polish the water but from what iv read they are only for very brief periods of time and are not meant to be used continuously like a normal filter would be. sort of the fish tank version of putting on a tuxedo.

it sounds like carbon will not solve my problem. boiling seems to be the solution everyone is giving me. boiling will work for a couple of pieces but the other 2 have plants on them. one piece has a baby java fern that took forever to finally get its rhizome to secure into the wood and the other has a huge (in my opinion) anubias that is so deeply "rooted" that i can see runners coming out the opposite side of the wood. so you can understand why i am not crazy about the idea of boiling as my only solution... it means i have to take a razor blade and temporarily remove two of my lovely plants from their homes, and id rather not mess with them and potentially shock them into remission or something.

so, i can boil the two bare pieces of wood easy enough, but what about the other two? this might be a stupid suggestion but would getting a wood eater like a pleco help?... its not like they actually eat ALL the wood they just skim little paths along the top and that might remove a part of the wood that's causing the problem. maybe? i dont know, just a thought.

what do you all suggest?

 

[jasonG75]

this might be a stupid suggestion but would getting a wood eater like a pleco help?...

plecos dont eat the wood they enjoy the tannins from the wood.

Water changes, adding more Carbon is about your only solution now since you dont want to take the plants off. You know with brown needle thread it is just as easy to re-attach.

 

[BettaFishMommy]

i say leave the wood be and let your fish enjoy the tannins. although it may not look the way you want it, the fish like it, and what matters most is the health of the critters in our care.

 

[bluemeate]

boil the wood with nothing attached or just use less of it... i meant it wont remove the coloring but im guessing it will lessen it

 

[Astex]

I've had some success with seachem's purigen, but it does bind other items as well. On the plus side, you can regenerate it so once it's "full", you can regenerate it and re-use.

 

[jasonG75]

I've had some success with seachem's purigen, but it does bind other items as well. On the plus side, you can regenerate it so once it's "full", you can regenerate it and re-use.

YEAP...if the person is using a canister filter THIS IS an option. To regenerate you wash it good and bake it (if I am not mistake) you can do this 2 or 3 times before it has to be replaced.


SIMPLE solution would be remove the plants...Boil.... Re-attach with needle thread. Problem "some what" resolved. OR you could use plastic/resin fake driftwood. Same concept or re-attachment.

 

[Lightning Bug]

i might try carbon and see what it does.

i dont want to detach my plants. so on the reverse side of things, how do i deliberately make the water murky? in other words, if its gona not be crystal clear, its better for it to take on the look of deliberately looking like a peat bog. so how does one create a peat bog biotope? iv read up on blackwater biotopes but id like some of ya'lls advice since im sure some of ya'll might have some actual experience with such things as apposed to simply having read about them. thanks for all the help so far by the way guys, it is appreciated.