# Such tannins. So cloudy



## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

Dump the water and use new.

Some wood just seems to keep on producing more and more tannins for a long time. 

You can try boiling it. That seems to take the tannins out faster. Boil it in several changes of water.


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## Okedokey (Sep 2, 2014)

That looks like bacteria to me. If you think it is tannins, I have had excellent results from purigen.


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## discuspaul (Jul 27, 2010)

Keep doing frequent water changes- that will continue to dilute the tannins.
Don't know what kind of filter you have in your tank, but if you can fit a small bag of Seachem Purigen anywhere in the filter compartment, that will make a huge difference in clearing up the water, and quickly.
If you can't fit it in anywhere in that filter, add an Aqua Clear 20 HOB filter to your tank and place the Purigen in it, along with some filter floss as well. If you have no livestock yet - simply replace your existing filter with the AC 20. If you have livestock, allow the HOB to become seeded with beneficial bacteria for a couple of weeks, then remove the original filter.
The AC HOB will do a good filtration job in your 6.5 gal.


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## Kitsune_Gem (Apr 10, 2012)

You could always toss the wood in the dishwasher and wash it a few times. Worked well with mine. I always use the dishwasher for wood I can't fit into a pot. Helps with getting the wood full of water so that it will sink as well. 
Just remember not to use soap : D


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## holoublahee (Jan 1, 2013)

Well the wood has lots of little plants glued to it, so I'll stick iwht the water changes. I wish i'd thought to do the dishwasher thing earlier. That's a really good idea!

Thanks a lot guys, I'll see when I can get my hands on some purigen.


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## zerodameaon (Dec 2, 2014)

Kitsune_Gem said:


> You could always toss the wood in the dishwasher and wash it a few times. Worked well with mine. I always use the dishwasher for wood I can't fit into a pot. Helps with getting the wood full of water so that it will sink as well.
> Just remember not to use soap : D


This makes me wish I did not have that liquid jet dry tray, not sure fish would appreciate that.


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## KwhyLE (Nov 9, 2014)

+1 on the purigen. It does wonders. I just stuck an 8 oz bag in front of my spraybar (I have a 4 gal and an internal filter) and it cleared up my water in 24 hours. Cloudiness will go away in time, but Ive noticed if youre in and out of your tank a lot the cloudiness is always there.


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## Princess newb (Nov 23, 2014)

A small piece of mops I leached I. My tank for a year and that's after several bookings and water changes. It still leaches a tiny bit. Take it out or do more water changes. I think Purigen affects your bioload. Someone correct me if that's wrong.


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Jun 15, 2008)

Hi 

+2 for Okedokey's and KwhyLE's comments about using Purigen to remove the tannins, it works great. The cloudiness is likely just a bacteria bloom associated with a new tank and going through the nitrogen cycle; it should clear up on its own after a week or so.


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## Clear Water (Sep 20, 2014)

Okedokey said:


> That looks like bacteria to me. If you think it is tannins, I have had excellent results from purigen.


+1 that is not cause by driftwood. Your water looks cloudy. If it was just the driftwood it would still be clear but stain brown. I have also had driftwood still leaking tannins in the water after 2 years.


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## discuspaul (Jul 27, 2010)

Princess newb said:


> A small piece of mops I leached I. My tank for a year and that's after several bookings and water changes. It still leaches a tiny bit. Take it out or do more water changes. I think Purigen affects your bioload. Someone correct me if that's wrong.


 Not sure what you mean by...."affects bioload...".
If you mean it adversely affects the bio-filtration elements (the beneficial bacteria) - it certainly does not. In fact, it doesn't cause anything negative to your water quality & conditions.
If you meant it affects the bioload from the standpoint of the livestock load your tank can carry/maintain, it might well allow you to safely keep a slightly larger number of fish than would normally be the case. So, from that standpoint, it's positive.


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## cgorges (Sep 9, 2014)

Your water looks more like it is cloudy from bacteria. Im still fighting tannins from my driftwood. The tannins make the water look more like tea or weak coffee. Ive been too cheap to try purigen, but have had good luck with activated carbon. The carbon would clean my water up from tea consistency to almost perfectly clear in a day. I was changing carbon in my sunsun 403b every 2 weeks at first. Now It lasts about a month as the leaching is slowing.


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## kidplanter (Aug 8, 2014)

the new tank has been hit by the ammonia from the new aqua soil you bought so all that yellow is humic acid and the cloudy is just from the dust and bacteria if your tank is new on top of that the yellow never goes away but the tank will turn clear. the plants in there will also melt from the unbalanced conditions as well.


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## IforgotWhatIwasDoing (Oct 16, 2017)

I am having this issue as well. My recently erected planted tank is a 28g bowfront soil capped with sand, and heavily planted; all of which are thriving.

I did however just stuffer as massive die off where everything seems apocolyptic and murky. Purigen is helping but... 

About 2 weeks ago I used some treatment via Jungle for Ich which physically cleared up the fish,but I was losing 3/4 guppies a day, followed by neons, some clown and rubber lip plecos.

What can I do here to rebalance and clarify/heal?


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