# wood tannins



## burntchef (Oct 13, 2009)

just added 3 hunks of iron wood to my tank and now getting some brown tannins . any way to clear this up? i did rinse them before adding and it cleaned them up a bit but still unhappy with the color its adding to my tank. 

thanks
howard


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## Jack Middleton (Oct 13, 2009)

burntchef said:


> just added 3 hunks of iron wood to my tank and now getting some brown tannins . any way to clear this up? i did rinse them before adding and it cleaned them up a bit but still unhappy with the color its adding to my tank.
> 
> thanks
> howard


Hi Howard

Tannins are actually beneficial to tanks as they lower the PH and they do look quite nice In my opinion, they also soften the water.

You can remove them by adding granular activated carbon but it will be exhausted after a day or so, so it is a rather expensive way of doing things.

You could take the wood out of the tank and boil it in water or leave it to soak for a few weeks with fresh water changes daily, don't worry about de-chlorinating the water or anything, it will be fine.

Cheers, Jack


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## JohnnyD44 (Dec 5, 2008)

Howard,
boiling the wood is the best way to remove *some* of the tannings....i still have not come across any pieces of wood for aquariums thats are completly void of tannins altogether.....you could boil the heck out of it and then let it soak to see if it turns a bucket of water brown or not.....




Jack Middleton said:


> You could take the wood out of the tank and boil it in water or leave it to soak for a few weeks with fresh water changes daily, don't worry about de-chlorinating the water or anything, it will be fine.
> 
> Cheers, Jack


I really hope you are talking about not dechlorinating the water used _from_ the partial water change to soak the driftwood in....when doing pwc, a water conditioner is crucial to the survival of fish....


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## Jack Middleton (Oct 13, 2009)

JohnnyD44 said:


> Howard,
> boiling the wood is the best way to remove *some* of the tannings....i still have not come across any pieces of wood for aquariums thats are completly void of tannins altogether.....you could boil the heck out of it and then let it soak to see if it turns a bucket of water brown or not.....
> 
> 
> ...


There is no need to use dechlorinater in the water that is being used to soak the wood.

On water changes of less than 20% I don't dechlorinate, its not really the fish that the chlorine affects, although in high concentrations it can pose a problem because it is diluted by 20%.Its the filter bacteria that you should be more worried about, I know of loads of people that keep discus that don't use dechlorinator, and they carry out 90% water changes daily!

The chlorine dose in water pipes is not meant to handle a colony anywhere near the size of what we have. Once a colony is mature then it can appears able to resist the chlorine in tap water (assuming the chlorine stays in the water long enough to get to the colony rather than gassing off). 

I have also found out through research that the amine part of chloramine can be processed by our filter bacteria, which intern means the chlorine will gas off as normal.

consider how long it takes for us to get a bacterial colony of the size we want. Assuming a 20 day cycle and a doubling of the colony every 24 hours then we have a colony some 1,048,576 times greater than the levels of bacteria found in the tap. As a result the amount of chlorine found in a water change will not be enough to completely wipe out the colony.


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## mollies (Mar 27, 2009)

Ok i do not put any bosters in my water changes eather. On that note we all should keep in mind that in some areas of the world the chlorins are a lot higher in the water content. Now I would recomend you should use your boster........ On the note of the tannis your tank will clear up in 3 or 4 weeks with your usual weekly water changes and your filters. Now that it is in your tank i would not recomend you takeing it out to boil it. Trust me it will disaper on its own. The natural way. best of luck to you let us know how it gos. *Byron *can step in if he would like, an be able to help a lot better then any of us. *My opinion*!!!!!!!!!


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## MoneyMitch (Aug 3, 2009)

Jack Middleton said:


> Hi Howard
> 
> Tannins are actually beneficial to tanks as they lower the PH and they do look quite nice In my opinion, they also soften the water.
> 
> ...


carbon actually wont take the color out. just over time with WC and itll go away. i would just take out the wood and BOIL it then everything in the wood will go away


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## Jack Middleton (Oct 13, 2009)

You may want actually test what you say, because my experience tells me otherwise.

I have had tannins in my tank, and for a few days I didn't mind them, but then they started to get on my nerves, I put some carbon in my filter and they were eradicated by the next morning.


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## mollies (Mar 27, 2009)

*So you are saying that we are inexperienced in the fish keeping hobby!* Well iv got some experience to and you dont need carbon to take care of it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just let the tank filter do its job. Rins it once aweek in tank water from your pwc. and in a few weeks it will be gone............Money had they not put it in the tank they would of been ok to boil it. But its already in there and the water is allready changeing color. So I would just leave it and let the tank do its thing. Sorry money.


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## MoneyMitch (Aug 3, 2009)

its just going to leech more over time and color his water over time. i say cut his loss take it out boil it throw it in then let the tank do its thing.


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## MoneyMitch (Aug 3, 2009)

Jack Middleton said:


> You may want actually test what you say, because my experience tells me otherwise.
> 
> I have had tannins in my tank, and for a few days I didn't mind them, but then they started to get on my nerves, I put some carbon in my filter and they were eradicated by the next morning.



by the way are you really that ignorant to say something like that???? you obviously are upset that i second guessed you and are just trying to cover your tracks. its ok there is not one person on here that knows everything(except byron). but next time you try to defend yourself dont sound like a iggnorant pouting 9year old.


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## mollies (Mar 27, 2009)

Money calm down.LOL


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## MoneyMitch (Aug 3, 2009)

just sayin man when im on my pain meds im easily angered.


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## mollies (Mar 27, 2009)

Agreed but let not make it an unplesent site for the new guys. lol Anywho. Every one is intitled to there opinions. Keep in mind every one.


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## Jack Middleton (Oct 13, 2009)

MoneyMitch said:


> by the way are you really that ignorant to say something like that???? you obviously are upset that i second guessed you and are just trying to cover your tracks. its ok there is not one person on here that knows everything(except byron). but next time you try to defend yourself dont sound like a iggnorant pouting 9year old.


making a statement like yours and not backing it up is ignorant.


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## jeaninel (Aug 24, 2007)

Calm down people!

You can do it either way. Leave it in the tank and with carbon and water changes the tannins will diminish with time. Or you can take it out and boil the heck out of it. There will still be some tannins but it will be much less. I've had wood that's taken about 4 months to stop leeching color into the tank. And that was after I boiled it and soaked it for a couple weeks.


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## MoneyMitch (Aug 3, 2009)

Jack Middleton said:


> making a statement like yours and not backing it up is ignorant.



i will be the mature one here for once and not take it any further:evil:


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## mollies (Mar 27, 2009)

lol


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## JohnnyD44 (Dec 5, 2008)

haha, way to be money....way to be....


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