Tank is still cloudy

[NickD]

This is my newly set up 29 gallon, it’s got 3 pieces of spider wood. I chose spider wood because I thought it doesn’t produce as many tanins. The water is still cloudy and tanins are starting to appear. Will the cloudiness ever go away or do I just have to do more water changes? 

[Tony s]

It does go away. Water changes help. Or go ahead and, if it’s cycled, use it. The tannins are beneficial. If you’re okay with the look. My wife wasn’t, so it took awhile, it finally cleared.

[face]

The cloudiness is probably just bacteria it will go away eventually on its own the tannins will depend on the specific wood a little bit of active carbon can help or just water changes 

[Tony s]

 

But if you try to remove it too soon, it’ll just bleed back. You could have boiled the wood to remove the tannins 

looks definitely tannins. I used mopani. Took over a month.

Edited February 11 by Tony s

[Whitecloud09]

On 2/11/2024 at 12:21 PM, Tony s said:

It does go away. Water changes help. Or go ahead and, if it’s cycled, use it. The tannins are beneficial. If you’re okay with the look. My wife wasn’t, so it took awhile, it finally cleared.

Spider wood does this? I had no idea…can u stop this from happenin?

[Tony s]

Only by pre-soaking or boiling. The bigger the piece the harder it is to boil. It’s not at all harmful, actually beneficial. Has some antibiotic properties. After a month of it in my 75g, I gave up and used chemipure green and cleared it. Charcoal may do the same thing over time. 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Blackwater tank are rad. 

If you want to clear up the tannins water changes and/or carbon are the way to go. 

Edited February 11 by AllFishNoBrakes

[Tony s]

I love the look.  But…. My wife does not.

Makes some of the fish just glow

[AllFishNoBrakes]

@Tony s Indeed. Thankfully, my girl is all about it and lets me do whatever I want to my tanks lol. 24 wild caught black neons are about 1/3 of the way through their QT and then will be added to the tank pictured above. 
 

My other blackwater tank has Chili Rasboras and Green Neons. The Green Neons POP in the blackwater. 

[NickD]

@face @Tony swhat is active carbon and how does it help with cloudiness?

[face]

Active Corbin is black almost gravely stuff it’s mostly used in premade hang on back filter cartridges, but you can buy just loose stuff and put it in a bag it absorbs everything that comes in contact with including stuff like tannins and medications it’s has to be replaced frequently so generally I’m not a fan of it but it’s an option

Edited February 11 by face

[Galabar]

Can you share your water parameters?  How long have you had the tank set up?

You are seeing a heterotrophic bacteria bloom. 

[NickD]

@Galabarits been set up for a few days, but when I see videos of people setting up new tanks it’s crystal clear after a couple of hours!!

[doktor zhivago]

On 2/11/2024 at 6:43 PM, NickD said:

@Galabarits been set up for a few days, but when I see videos of people setting up new tanks it’s crystal clear after a couple of hours!!

Mechanical filtration clears up the dust on the gravel and wood and all the other hardscaping that causes cloudiness when you first put water in the tank.

After a few days you will get a bloom of heterotrophic bacteria in the tank due to the beneficial bacteria and plants in your tank being unable to out compete other species of bacteria at first. As the tank matures the bloom will fade on a few days as the bacteria responsible both exhaust the food they need and the bacteria and plants you want taking up more of the nutrients the bloom relies on 

[Lonkley]

On 2/11/2024 at 12:50 PM, NickD said:

@face @Tony swhat is active carbon and how does it help with cloudiness?

Carbon basically removes organic molecules.  If you've ever used a water filter like in a refrigerator or a Brita, it's basically just filled with activated carbon. It's porous and attracts pollutants in water.

Purigen should also make short work of that.

Most tank filters default cartridges have carbon, but if you're just running sponge it's a little more difficult to add chemical filtration (which Carbon or Purigen is).  Best you can do it wrap it around a sponge with like a rubber band or something so the water will flow through it before hitting the sponge.  You can also look at getting a small cheap hang on back and just using it when you need it.  Or just consider getting a HOB. Personally I like running both a HOB and a sponge. Hob as primary filter, and the sponge as a backup with the co-op air pump so the tank stays oxygenated in a long power outage. Two main colonies of bacteria is nice too, I never clean both the HOB and sponge at the same time.   I also really like using the fine polishing pads the co-op sells to get rid of small particulates, which I put in my HOB.