Brown water!!!!!!

**scotchbonneteater** · 05-06-2012, 06:24 PM

Hi all,

Hopefully someone can put my mind at rest, yesterday I put a large/huge piece of bogwood into my 70 gallon freshwater tank, looked in today and the water is very brown, Is this normal as it didn't happen when I had 4 smaller pieces in there? Will my fish be OK in there?
I have checked the water and it's:

Amm 0
nitrate 10
nitrite 0
ph 7.5

**Cliff** · 05-06-2012, 06:39 PM

Sounds like your drift wood is leaching out some tannins into your water. tannins are harmless to your fish

You could take out the drift wood and soak it in a bucket to leach out the tannins before putting it in your tank. Doing this for a few weeks can lessen the tannins in your tank latter.

**scotchbonneteater** · 05-06-2012, 07:19 PM

Thanks again Cliff

If the fish are going to be ok would my bi-weekly 25% water changes bring out the tannins over time ?

**Cermet** · 05-06-2012, 08:04 PM

You are so lucky - all my drift wood never yields tannins; why I can never find such good stuff is annoying to no end.

**Cliff** · 05-06-2012, 09:10 PM

Originally Posted by scotchbonneteater

Thanks again Cliff

If the fish are going to be ok would my bi-weekly 25% water changes bring out the tannins over time ?

They should be OK

You could even increase the size of the waterchanges if you don't like the coloring of the water. I've read carbon also helps to remove it

**scotchbonneteater** · 05-06-2012, 09:23 PM

Cermet, I'll put a picture up just to make you jealous

check my Journal tomorrow.

Thanks cliff I'll put the carbon in (as I didn't use it when cycling) and see what happens. If it stays brown I'll ship some out in containers to Cermet!

**toddnbecka** · 05-07-2012, 04:50 AM

Filter carbon or Purigen will remove the tannins if you want clear water. Depending on the size of the piece of wood you may have to clear the tank several times over a period of months before it will stay that way. The color is the main effect though, it's harmless to fish or other critters.