Tannins! More light?

[Ron Hudson]

Setting up 125 g planted tank w/ 3 large sponge filters.  Have 2 large wood pieces each end of tank.  Now 4th day of new plants.   Very dark with tannins.  Fluval 3.0 at 50% power for first few weeks.  Looks so dark!  Should I up power b/c of dark water?

[lefty o]

keep up on water changes til the dark stuff stops coming. could take a while. i have 1 tank with 1 really dark chunk of mopani that keeps pumping out the dark tannins after many months. for me brighter white light doesnt really light it up, but my light has a mode with red and blue lights along with the white, and that seems to help make the tank more viewable. cant guarantee it'll work, but its what works in mine.

[Brian]

Well, did you rinse and soak and the rinse then boil the wood?   Ok, and then repeat that? And when I say soak, I mean for at least 24 hours maybe changing the water every 3 or 4 hours.   And boil in large pot for 10-15 minutes.  
I will repeat that over and over until i am satisfied with the color of the water.  
Also I don’t know how well sponge filters will be with removing then tannins from the water.  So at this point it is Water Changes.  
Good Luck

 

[darkG]

Activated carbon may speed things up.

[Will Billy]

A trick i used with my sponge filter just to take the edge off from continued tannin release, was i dropped a few pieces of activated carbon into the center slotted tube of the sponge, just below the airstone. I didnt want to use purigen as it is too aggressive and would remove most of my tannins. The activated carbon was just right. I only used it for about a month and now i run my sponge filters with no carbon. Eventually with water changes & time the tannins become less and less and now i find myself adding cholla wood and catapa leaves trying to get my tannins back lol. 

Edited February 25, 2021 by Will Billy
Spelling

[KaitieG]

3 hours ago, Brian said:

Well, did you rinse and soak and the rinse then boil the wood?   Ok, and then repeat that? And when I say soak, I mean for at least 24 hours maybe changing the water every 3 or 4 hours.   And boil in large pot for 10-15 minutes.  
I will repeat that over and over until i am satisfied with the color of the water.  
Also I don’t know how well sponge filters will be with removing then tannins from the water.  So at this point it is Water Changes.  
Good Luck

 

That method definitely works well for smaller pieces of wood!  I know I ran into the issue of not having a large enough pot to boil my larger chunks for my big tank.  I poured boiling water over it instead several times and let it soak for over 2 weeks with 2-3X daily boiling water changes.  It helped, but it still leached in the tank. I ended up putting a bag of purigen in the filter, and that cleared it up for me!

[Celly Rasbora]

I ❤️ tannins, and so do my fish. I know it colors the water, but it's good for the fish, so it makes me happy.

 

Edited February 25, 2021 by Celly Rasbora
Edited to elaborate