# Cannot fully remove tannins from Driftwood



## Mr. Fisher

Depends on what type of wood it is. If it's a hard wood, it should be okay for the fish.

You can use carbon or Purigen to remove the tannins from the water.


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## Mr. Fisher

I should add, water changes, too


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## OverStocked

Tannins won't hurt fish. They will lower pH, but many fish benefit from this. They will also discolor the water. In your tank you can use purigen and frequent water changes to keep them down. If this wood is "fresh" it could literally take years to get it all out.


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## Zolek

If its Mopani wood (two color tones) then you are basically out of luck as far as getting full tannin removal. I have pieces of mopani that were boiled for ~20 hours each and they still leech heavily after a year in tank. 

The tannins are totally harmless to fish, they do however acidify the water slightly so not so great for fish that like basic water. If you have hard water the tannins actually improve your water quality. Bettas like soft slightly acidic water so tannins are fine for them.

your options are basically:

1. Purigen - will clean water completely clear. Works MUCH better than carbon for this application.
2. Water changes, if your doing 50%/wk anyways it'll keep fairly clear as a side effect
3. Learn to love the color
4. Soak the wood outside in a tub until it stops leeching (1 month - 1 year depending on size)

options 1 & 2 are the best


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## Postal Penguin

Boiling the wood for longer is not the answer. Tannins will leach out but the rate at which they leach out will drastically decrease the longer you boil the wood and the darker the water gets. 

So instead of boiling it for 35-40 minutes, boil it for 5-10 minutes, completely change the water and boil for 5-10 min again. Keep repeating this process till the water doesn't change much after 10 min of boiling. You will remove far more tannins this way than boiling continuously for a long time. You will still not get all of them but a bit of carbon will clean up any remaining.


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## Mark F.

*tannins in betta tank*

I would second the comments from "over stocked" - bettas evolved in shallow, swampy waters that are naturally rich in tannins (albeit probably more from leaf litter than wood; rice paddies are their preferred habitat) ... your betta's probably "happy" (and healthy) because of the staining, so you might want to try coming to terms with aesthetic aspect of it as well.


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## houstonhobby

Purigen will take the tannin stain out of the water. I had some driftwood that was so bad it would turn the water completely coffee-colored in just a couple of days. I never realized it until I had to dose the tank and removed the Purigen so it would not interfere with the medicine. The amount of tannins that Purigen will remove is truely amazing.


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## Mudman

Thanks for the comments guys! I very much appreciate it. 

Looks like purigen is the way to go. 

I was also wondering if this stuff will filter out water conditioners? so lets say I use the purigen, then a week later do a water change- would I remove the purigen?

Or better put- when would be a good time to remove purigen if at all?

Since putting the Betta in the new tank- it's been much more active and happy it would seem. The driftwood is currently soaking in the old plastic critter cage that the Betta was in before.

Perhaps I will continue to soak the driftwood, until time opens up to get the purigen.


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