Red water...

[LukeHawk]

The water in my tank is a very tea-like colour, and because of the orange wall behind it, it looks really red and icky. I've been reading around and the tea-colour is from my driftwood apparently. I added the wood to my tank ages ago, but it seems its still staining the water. Will it ever stop? Do I just need to keep doing water changes until it goes away?

Pics:

 

[zigzag131]

im think its your driftwood and your food might be a reason also if you put to much in the tank when you feed.

but to solve the driftwood issue try to boil it if you can and all the tannins will get released and you can put them back in the water and the color wont do that.

 

[unwritten law]

try adding more carbon to your filter as well... maybe your carbon is no longer any good so it stopped taking out the discoloration that your wood has always been releasing

 

[MrNiteOwl]

Another good option is changing your background.... Just a thought....*twirlysmi

 

[LukeHawk]

:B I didnt even know you had to change a filters carbon. I'll look into that thanks.

And yeah, haha changing the background is a good idea. Would it work if I just put black cloth behind the tank or something?

 

[Avalon]

You can, and I would recommend, placing a solid black background on the back of your tank. You can get the laminated plastic sheets at any LFS, usually the pre-rendered backgrounds are black on one side. Sometimes they have plain black. You can also use a black trash bag...just smooth out the wrinkles and tape it up.

As for the staining, it is from your driftwood. It can take up to 3 months or so before it will stop leeching tannins. The tannins don't hurt anything aside from diffusing some light. You can remove them by regular water changes or you can filter them out with activated carbon.