Cloudy Water

Hi

I have a 136l Freshwater tank with a very small oscar(going to be moved soon)
2 Angelfish, 1 Tiger Barb a common pleco(also going to be moved) and 3 Golden Apple snails. A problem that I have is that the water is always yellow colour and every time I do a water change the colour is slightly less be returns soon . I have a piece of driftwood , quite a few plants and there is a AquaClear filter in there

I really want to get rid of this colour, I anyone has any useful advice or tips please write them down
TIA

 

Hi Peter it is more than likely the piece of driftwood. Remove it, do a water change and see if it yellows up again.
Can be that the wood is still releasing tannins.

 

Hey Peter,

The yellowish "tea" tinge is more than likely from the piece of driftwood. 90% of wood leaches out what we call Tannins. It is not bad for the fish, and certain wood actually leeches out antibacterial tannins which is good for the fish.

If you have a certain type of biotype set up... meaning a specific area, then this will be welcome. But I am assuming because you are complaining about it, you don't necessarily want it.

The only way you can realy get rid of it is to soak that piece of wood in water for a few months, changing the water every few days. A lot of people have had success with boiling the wood for a few hours too, but that also depends on how big the wood is, and if you have a pot big enough for it.

An alternal method, which is something I do, is get a product called Purigen into your filter. It comes at a high price though... but is by far one fo the best chemical filtration method's available. You buy a small 100gram packet of the stuff, (I think it's about R150.00 or there abouts), put it into the filter, and within 2 - 3 days, our tank will be completely clear.

Purigen, as with all chemical filtration media, get's exhausted after a few weeks, but the benefit with Purigen is that is can be recharged by (1) soaking it in a 50-50 bleech solution for 24 hours, (or until the Purigen turns white again), and then (2) soaking it again in a solution to remove the bleech. I usually soak it in 50-50 solution of dechlorination. Works very well, and can be regenerated quite a few times before it is tossed onto the rubbish pile.

 

Thanks
I have try to soak the wood in water for a while but it does not seem to help
I will try the Purigen

 

Most wood needs to be soaked for ages in order to get rid of most of the tannins. Try using HOT water and replacing the water often. Erm, before you misunderstand me, take the wood OUT of the tank before doing this . If it is a large piece of wood, use your bath.

Purigen does work very well as Zoom has said but you'll have to recharge it often if the wood is leeching that much tannin so I would suggest first taking the wood out, even if it is for a week or so only, and using the hot water method as often as you can in order to remove most of the tannins before using the Purigen.

 

i had my drift wood in a seperate tank for about 2 weeks with a heater and when i put it in my main tank the water was clear, but maybe that was becoz of the carbon.