Wood Leaching Tannin

[Dibba]

Hello everyone My partner went to a great deal of effort to find me a beautiful piece of wood for my new 4' tank - lots of hollows, areas for planting etc etc. When he bought it home I bleached it, scrubbed it and washed it (no detergents!) and a week ago I filled the tank with it inside. The problem is that the water is really coloured now and I am wondering if this will ease over time? Is there anything else that I should have done to the wood? Thanks in advance Di

[PeterJ]

It depends a bit on the timber, but it probably will ease over time - the only other thing I would have done is maybe soak it in a bucket for a couple of weeks, changing the water every few days to see how much is leaching from the wood. Give it time (and some water changes), tanins are good for some types of fish and plants - as long as it's not too much.

[xysti53]

The best thing is to leave the new piece of timber in a bucket or drum for a couple of weeks and change water daly - now I know with the water restrictions this is not possible so just change water when you water your garden through out the old and refill bucket with new. Tannan will leach from most timber some longer than others. A quick way to leach tannan from timber is to boil the timber for a couple of hours changing water regularly - you need a very big pot or old copper for this. The left over water that comes from this process is reduced further and sold as "Black Water Extract" and is very good for softening water. Also there is a Ocean Free product called "Super Zero Color" which if used correctly does remove tannans from the water. Graeme :scared:

[Dibba]

Thanks for the replies. I have done a water change and popped an extra carbon filter into the tank for a while and it is clearing already. At least I know what to do next time Di