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i think carbon 'll do the trick

Well, I ended up using BioChem Zorb. I read a bunch of stuff and had several ideas. Then I went to my LSF and this is what they had. So that settled that, lol. It seems to work well, the water looked much better after only 12 hours, and after about 3 days, I couldn't see any yellow at all. It hasn't effected the PH, and seems to even be keeping the nitrates lower a bit. It replaces the charcoal element (it includes charcoal) and is supposed to last between 3 and 6 months. It cost about $10.

So we'll see, but so far, it seems to work as described.

-Dennis

You could just be really cheap and keep doing those water changes, the yellow tannins in the water are probably more upsetting to you than the fish, theres no real need to use chemicals for this sort of thing.

People underestimate how long it takes to soak bogwood. I had a piece I soaked for over a month in running water before it gave up chucking out vast amounts of tannins. Depends on where you get the wood from.

Thanks for the info sham. I hope never to be in the position to test this myself.

I can tell you I'm 100% certain it doesn't do a thing for greenwater. I've had the most persistent greenwater in the 90g that has double the suggested amount of purigen. I finally blacked out the tank for the past 5 days and it's just barely clearing up.

Just a few clarifications about Purigen:

1. It removes tannins and other small particles in the water which might cloud them. It is said by Seachem that it can even clear green water but I've not had that so I don't know.
2. It removes impurities from water.
3. It removes medications from water.
4. It does not remove trace elements from water needed by plants.
5. It does not remove ammonia, nitrites or nitrates. What it does is remove nitrogenous waste compounds before they break into ammonia.

It is really an excellent product. I originally bought it for one tank but realised it polishes the water to such extent that makes it clearer than when it comes out of the tap, so I added it to my other tank as well.

And not only does it clears the water better than carbon does, it also lasts for much longer and then can be recharged although care should be taken when recharging as if you use a water conditioner which contains amines, it will render Purigen unrechargeable as the process could make it toxic. Seachem's Prime and Cholorguard are both amines free, but as other manufacturers don't really say what's in their product, if you use anything any other water conditioner it would best to assume that they are amine-based. Still, it still gives better value for your money than carbon and gives far better results.




Last edited by untitled at 04-Sep-2005 04:05

Beefshank,

I had the same problem with yellowing water from my driftwood. I tried everything from water changes to carbon and just couldn't keep up with it. The water wasn't that bad, but it was enough to annoy me, plus it was affecting the lighting level in the tank.

Then I found Purigen. I had heard about it before, but I wasn't sure about its effect on my water chemistry and my live plants. I read all the threads I could on it and they all assured me that it would have a minimal effect on trace elements. The biggest thing I was worried about was my nitrogen levels.

I decided to give it a try and I was utterly amazed at how quickly and completely it cleared up my water. Within a few hours I could see the yellow color fading and in 12 hours the water was completely clear. The nitrogen level has not crashed as I had feared, so currently I am very pleased with the product. Time will tell how it works out with my plants. You have fake plants, so you don't have to worry about nitrogen and trace element levels.

Also, the driftwood only had a temporary effect on my pH, lowering it about .3 or .4. After a month, that effect stopped.

Last edited by renoharps at 03-Sep-2005 07:33

Some kinds of wood won't give off tannins and some always will. With most kinds of wood some boiling and lots of soaking will cause the outside layer of the wood to release all it's tannic acid and swell up sealing off the rest of the wood. My problem started when I added 3 small plecos so I think they were scraping off the outer layer so the wood released tannins again.

hey i see alot about bog wood will this leech too are is it better

I added driftwood to my tank recently to lower the PH as it has all plastic plants. It's doing a nice job of that, but the water is turning REALLY yellow. I knew it would happen, but was hoping that after soaking the wood in a container for 2 weeks, it wouldn't be this yellow.

Is there anything I can do aside from water changes (which I do on a schedule) to make the water less yellow?

That tank already has lights with a blue tint. I don't know the watts, but it has 2 fixtures, and each fixture consists of 2 floresent bulbs, one white, and one blue.

So I guess I'm hoping there is something that can be added to the filter or something.

I really liked the small yellow tint it had for the first couple days, it really made the plants look green.

thanks,

-Dennis

Carbon will only remove tannins to a point and I still had blackwater from my 2 pieces of driftwood. The pieces had been in there a year, I was running a huge amount of carbon in all the extra media sections of my penguin filters, and doing water changes twice a week. Now the same pieces of driftwood are in the 90g with 2 bags of purigen and 2 marineland cartridges with a small amount of carbon. There's no yellow color. A bit of green from algae but that's another matter Seachem says 1 of the bags I have would treat a 100g tank for 6 months and the bags are tiny. Only maybe 4" and almost square. Both bags don't even cover the entire media basket in my canister.


Last edited by sham at 30-Aug-2005 17:54

Purigen won't change your pH. Tannins are not what bring your pH down anyway -- it's the humic acid that lowers your pH, and if you maintain periodical water changes, its affect on the pH will be minute.

Add some carbon & do weekly water changes & don't add any chemicals in your tank.


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Beefshank

There is only one safe way to remove the Tannins from your tank. Sorry but remove the DW and let it soak for a few weeks. Change the water regually and give it a good brush down with a hard clean brush. Some say boil this might help. It also could be a timber that continually leaches out Tannins.

Keith

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Purigen, on the other hand, works like magic. It will clear your water in a matter of a several hours

but will removing tannins so quicky effect the ph/softness of the water dramatically?

Activated carbon is one option, and the other option is Seachem's Purigen.

I have used activated carbon in the past and now I use Purigen. Activated carbon does help a bit, but it needs replacing every once in a while (5 days to a couple of weeks, depends who you're asking). Purigen, on the other hand, works like magic. It will clear your water in a matter of a several hours, will last for a few months (how long exactly depends on your tank), and can even be recharged.

Only problem with Purigen is that if you use a water conditioner that contains amines it renders the purigen unrechargeable. Prime doesn't contain any amines but other water conditioners do not mention whether they contain amines or not so it's best to assume that they do as recharging would make Purigen toxic if they do contain amines. Even then, Purigen is more effective and ends up being cheaper than carbon.

And about the blue tint, best thing is to replace the tube for a 6700K tube which highlights the greens and will make the green in your plants shine.

You can try carbon in your filter but you would need a very fine filter mesh to remove the tannins leached from the driftwood. The leaching will gradually decline.

Your light fixture is a marine tank fixture with a 10K white bulb and an actinic bulb. You may want to try a 6700K bulb that will bring out warmer hues.

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