# Bog Wood & Yellow Water



## ShadowMinx (May 12, 2010)

Evening All,

Can anyone help with this?

We recently added bog/driftwood to our tank. I think it was 2- 3 weeks ago. Anyway we have noticed that there is now a yellow tinge to the tank water. A friend said it was the wood. Is this the case? In which case how or what can we do about it?

Thanks in advance!


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

yes its from the wood, its called tannins. To reduce tannins you can do a water change and it helps to boil the log. It will still take some time before it stops leeching tannins.


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## ShadowMinx (May 12, 2010)

Thanks. When you say boil the log, how exactly would I do that? Would I need to do it more than once?


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## PostShawn (Dec 22, 2009)

I was told by my LFS that you are supposed to boil the wood until your boiling water doesn't turn dirty anymore. A good 3 times usually does it the guy said. This was for wood he was selling in the store so it doesnt mean just because it's from a pet store you don't need to do this. Of course if your wood isn't too big to fit into a pot this is. Did you boil or clean your wood or did you just through it in the tank?


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## gypsity (May 19, 2010)

Get the biggest pot you have and make sure the wood is completely submerged. Boil for 30 minutes, let it dry & repeat once or twice more. I rub the outside of the wood with salt after taking it out the first time, helps pull out moisture that may be holding germies (i get my drift wood from the great outdoors - not a pet store) before boiling it a second time.


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## ShadowMinx (May 12, 2010)

Upon the advise of the lfs we stuck it straight in stupidly! Will boiling it now still work? As for getting it from the great outdoors thats great and good for you it would save a fortune seeing as they charged me £7.50 per bit and we have 3! But I wouldn't know a peice of driftwood if it jumped up and smacked me in the face!


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## gypsity (May 19, 2010)

I had to weigh my drift wood down to get it to sink, the stuff you get in pet stores is naturally a heavier wood - and more expensive because of it. Taking it out now and boiling it will reduce the amount of time the wood can leach into the water. If anything, it wont hurt. Here is what the wood in my tank looks like after getting it all cleaned up.


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## PostShawn (Dec 22, 2009)

If you take the wood out, boil it like mentioned. While it's out do a water change. Do you normally change the water every week or two? Probably do a 25% water change. If you have big pieces of wood/dirty take that out with the net. Otherwise just let the filters run without the wood in the tank for a while. When it's cleared up you can re-insert you boiled wood. This will probably take anywhere from 1-4 days to clear up the tank before you want to put the wood back in. Check your filter after all said and done to see if it got too dirty from all the stuff in the water. You should be good after that. 

I too would use wood from the outdoors rather then a pet store. I was just asking around at my LFS. I heard people sometimes bolt the wood to a piece of slate or some nice stone to get it to sink. Driftwood is basically wood that has spent time in a body of water and washed up on shore. It has had it's bark removed naturally and the better pieces are rounded off around edges. You can just check your local lakes, rivers, large streams, etc for any good looking wood. You want it in good condition not too splitting because the boiling might make it split even more and not too many small holes that other critters may be living in. 

Good luck.


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## ShadowMinx (May 12, 2010)

Thanks Guys thats great! 

I dont suppose this stuff thats coming of the wood could cause an adverse affect on my plants could it?


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Actually, a little bit of tannin is generally good, and most fish love it, but you generally won't get just a little with wood that hasn't been boiled.
Tannin reduces hardness and pH, and it helps prevent fungus.


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