My water wont clear, and I am wondering if it has to do with the driftwood? Anyone else had this problem?
Driftwood
- Thread starter midnightmadman
- Start date
ya my LFS said that if i buy driftwood i need to soak it in a bucket for 2-7 days or untill all the brown stuff is out of the water. he said every day i should take it out and refill with more water then let it bleed out again. then when it has finaly stopped bleeding out brown or yellow the its ready for my tank..... so i hope you did that before you put it in.
its never going to really just stop leeching the tannins well not any time soon atleast but it will slow down a bit but as previously stated carbon will help remove the discoloartionbut it is a good idea to soak the driftwood, i soak mine for about a month and it sill turns my water that yellowish brown
I dont mind the yellow tint from the wood, but the water just wont get crystal clear.
It is
"dirty" Cloudy water
It is
"dirty" Cloudy water
Driftwood will stop leaching tannins (for all practical purposes), but depending on the wood it can take a very long time. For smaller pieces (i.e. those that fit in a pot), boiling them will greatly speed this process. Soaking accomplishes the same end, but over a longer time scale. Just remember to change the water (in both cases) as it becomes coloured, otherwise the wood and water will reach an equilibrium and no more tannins will leave the wood.
I had pretty good luck with boiling the wood. Basically get a BIG pot and fill it with water. Bring it to a boil and drop the wood in for 10-15 minutes. Then take off heat pull wood out with tongs or something (it will be hot). Then refill with water and repeat process till the water remains clear. Then pull out and let it soak in some cool water for the rest of the day (change water if needed). Next day you should be good to go!
Oh, okay. You know about the tannins, and are more concerned about cloudiness, then?midnightmadman said:
I had a problem with cloudy water a while back, and was told here that cloudiness is usually just a bacterial bloom of some sort. My personal problem had been overfeeding-- I had been dropping in algae tablets for my cories, but they weren't being eaten fast enough and wound up polluting the tank instead. Once I reduced the amount of food I was giving, the cloudiness went away after a couple of days.
Having said that, though, it should be noted that cloudiness can be caused by lots of different factors, and not just overfeeding. Unfortunately, though, I'm a bit of a noob, and can't help much beyond what I've already told you. >_o