Hey, I'm Ascendant! Help~

[Ascendant]

Heya guys and girls, Im ascendant, im new to aquariums and im currently setting up a Freshwater aquarium for now, and i might move on to heated freshwater later on.

Im having a problem with murky water. Today i bought a 80litre tank filled her up after rinsing the pebbles and putting in a large piece of driftwood in. Its a brown color and I figured its because of the pebbles, so I've got 2 filter systems running to clean it out

any help/suggestions?

[crackatinny]

Hi mate and welcome, if you do a search within the forum on driftwood, there was a recent thread about treating it before use, one of the issues brought up in the thread was that it can release tannin into the water, turning it a colour of tea.

[f1oored]

Yep, if the water is brown it's probably the drift wood. The filters won't make the brown go away either. Just water changes.

[Nautilus291]

I recently bought a piece of driftwood and i have it soaking in a bucket. Everyday i change the water. Im going to keep doing this till the water stops turning colors. Maybe you should try the same thing with yours.

[Lady Hobbs]

Posters previous to me are all on the money. Driftwood releases tannins into the water for a couple of weeks. No big deal and it hurts nothing. Actually I rather like the brackish water look but it won't be with you for long.

Are you doing a fishless cycle? Check up on that before adding fish to that tank and save yourself a bunch of headaches.

You mentioned you might move on to a heater freshwater system later. All freshwater fish need heat other than goldfish (which you can't have with other freshwater fish.) Normal temps for most (but not all) freshwater fish is 74-78.

And Welcome to AC Community Forum where the fun never stops.

[Incredulous_Ed]

Welcome to ac! the tannins that are being released from the driftwood are not harmful and will go away eventually.
Maybe someone can answer this: Do the tannins lower the pH?

[Lady Hobbs]

They are supposed to ED. The tannins soften the water and with that comes the lower pH.

[Nautilus291]

They soften my water from 7.5 to 7.

[jeffs99dime]

let me start by saying welcome to a.c. yes, tannin does in fact lower the ph. ASCENDANT, i would recommend the free e-book located on the left margin of this forum. there is loads of information in that. it should answer most of your basic questions about starting up your aquarium.

[Ascendant]

Hey, thanks for the advice guys, that E-book really does help.
Another Q -
Can you "Over-filter" a tank? I've got 2 box filters and 1 gravel filter running. At nights I turn off the box filters and leave the gravel filter running, is this safe?

My fish are swimming in the aquarium now, after 1.5days of filtering the water in my new tank, I put them in.
I had them in a small octagon fishtank before with pebbles that have been building up natural bacterias for years, and i put the pebbles in the new tank to kickstart the eco-system.
Hopefully it all works out XD

[jeffs99dime]

no problem. over filtering, i believe is a myth. some would say it's not. just make sure that the current in the tank is not too much for the fish you are keeping. for instance: you wouldn't want a fast moving current in a tank with angelfish, discus, etc. follow? you want to research all possible facets of the particular fish you are keeping ie: habitat, temperature, water parameters, etc. as for turning the filters off at night, why do you do that exactly? also, how old are the filters you are running and is the media inside them old too (biologically sound?), like the substrate (pebbles)?? do you own a liquid test kit that tests for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph?--this is vital. --jeff

[Ascendant]

The filters and substrate arent to old, they have only ever been inside the other tank, and all my fish have lived fairly decent lives in previous states.
Q - how old does a normal goldfish usually live for?

The fishtank is in my room and it's extremely noisy with all 3 filters running. I've got a huge pump that can pump 2 filters at once. Im a light sleeper when it comes to electronics and humming sounds, and I prefer to turn everything off at the power switches.

I dont own any testing kits.. yet.

thanks