Q's - Tannin

[Ascendant]

Uhm, I've got tannins in my water due to a large piece of driftwood in my tank. My water is quite merky and tanned, and I want it to be crystal clear.

I did some searching on clarifier's and found various products that make heavy metals and debris clump together, and then is filtered out by the filtering system.

I then researched more, and went to my local aquarium shop for some professional advice. The man said that those clarifier's will not remove the tannins from the water, and I need this other product. (Which costs an arm and a leg).

My Q - Do clarifier's work from removing tannins? What is a product that is cheap, and does?

[f1oored]

Don't bother with product to remove the color. What you need to do is large water changes until the wood stops leaching color into the water. Many people let the wood cure before putting it in the tank. The tannins probably won't hurt your fish so you have two options now.

1 - Take the wood out and cure it in another container changing the water daily (until the color stops leaching into the water).
2 - Leave the wood in the tank and do water changes. Your water will not be clear until the wood stops letting off tannins.

Hope this helps.

[Sasquatch]

As far as I know, the only way to reduce tanin levels is UV light.

But tanins aren't particularily dangerous to the fish. At worst they'll acidify the water, but with regular water changes that should be easy to keep under control.

I've fished in lakes where the water was so dark you could make tea with it. The fish were fine and, if anything, they were more colorful. Keep an eye on the water quality, especially the pH and do water changes if it changes too much.

[jeffs99dime]

water changes will remove the tannins for a little while. did you soak the driftwood before placing it in you tank?

[AuroraAustralis]

Run activated carbon in your filter for a couple of weeks (or until it reaches a colour you can live with) and it will clear your water and remove the dark tint from the tannins. I have blackwater tanks and find it works well to remove some of the tannins when the water gets too dark. Even when blackwater is what your after you still want to see the fish lol that's what it's all about after all ;o)
Don't forget to remove the carbon after your done though as after a while it looses it's effectiveness and releases what it has absorbed back into the water.

[Lady Hobbs]

Color from tannins only lasted about two weeks for me. I just cleared it up with water changes. Helps to also soak the wood for a couple weeks prior to using it. It won't hurt your fish any.