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Hello,
I have had a nice piece of selfsinking driftwood. I got this about 2 months ago and there is a problem. It wil NOT stop changing the water color. The color is constantly turning brown and I am getting very annoyed. After countless water changes, the water will not stay clear. Anyone have Ideas? Thanks.

Chris

About all that you can do is to keep changing water untill ALL of the tannins bleed from the wood. Each type of wood carry tannins that will discolor water. I use mopani wood for my aquarium and it stopped "bleeding" after about 12 months.

The size of the wood, the type of wood and the size of the tank, are all variables when you think about the subject. Besides changing water, you could buy a much larger tank! The coloring would be much less visible!



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12 MONTHS!!! Wow, I might have to give up on it. That is really long. Any ways to speed it up?

Chris

Take it out of the tank and soak it in a large container changing the water every 3-4 days. When you take it out give it a good scrubbing with a very hard brush. This will loosen all the exterior of the DW where most of the Tannin (stain) is coming from. If it does not clear up within several weeks I am sorry to say it is the type of wood you have.

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Keith

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i soaked a piece i have for a month in a tank and even after i moved it into the main tank it still changed my water color. only thing you can keep doing is changing the water

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction

Actually you can do more than just change the water. I use purigen on all my tanks because I'm impatient and hate to wait to add wood to my tank but I always end up finding new pieces I want. http://seachem.com/products/product_pages/Purigen.html You can also use lots of carbon or any other chemical filtration but 1 of the small bags(100ml) of purigen removed all the color from my 90g with several pieces of new wood for 4-6months before I just recharged it and used it again. I just spray the wood with really hot water in the shower and then stick it in the tank without any brown color to the water. Otherwise it can take at least several months and sometimes more than a year for some wood to stop releasing tannins and be suitable for any tank you want to be able to see the fish in. Some wood never stops releasing tannins and within a week of not having a bag of purigen in my 55g it turns black again even though most of the wood has been in a tank for several years.