The Puffer Forum

I've been treating my driftwood to be fully submersible but it's still giving out tannins. Would it be ok for my Fahaka if I put that into his tank?

The tannins themselves are not toxic, but they will drop the pH, so keep a very close watch on tank parameters

Activated carbon would help, but there's differing views on whether it should be used for anything but removing med treatments - it's personal choice

I have 2 huge pieces of driftwood in 2 large tanks. I do 75% weekly WC, to bring the color back to normal. The older piece is finally not turning the water brown.

Pufferpunk wrote:I have 2 huge pieces of driftwood in 2 large tanks. I do 75% weekly WC, to bring the color back to normal. The older piece is finally not turning the water brown.

Ok thanks. Wouldn't it stress him doing 75% WC?

Absolutely not, you could probably break it down to around 2x 50% weekly and should get a similar clearing effect if you would prefer.

There is nothing evil about GAC, but it generally cost more than water. Lots of breeders do 100% water changes or more daily. Do keep in mind that in the wild fish get a lot more changes than that much of the year...

RTR wrote:There is nothing evil about GAC, but it generally cost more than water. Lots of breeders do 100% water changes or more daily. Do keep in mind that in the wild fish get a lot more changes than that much of the year...

Yea that is what I was informed by one of our LFS. He told me the direct importer is doing 100% WC in every batch of fishes that would arrive. But make sure the medias of the filter still got good beneficial bacterias, right?

You can never do WC too large or too often, as long as they are done regularly. My tank's water closely resembles that of my tap.

Huge +1 to PP's comment. That statement: "My tank's water closely resembles that of my tap." is exactly what we all should be trying to achieve!

BTW, after ~6 months, the tannin of a piece large enough to fill 1/2 of my 90g has pretty much stopped leaching color. Also, even though the water was quite brown at the end of the week, the pH never changed.

But the tannins can eat light. If you use a lot of fresh wood, start w/artificial plants until the tannins clear.