Help! black water!

[zach2011]

does anyone know wat would make the water in my tank turn dark brown almost black? i put the water in and it turns darker and darker as it runs through the stream and waterfall.. is there some chemical i can put in that will clear it up and not hurt the animals? thanks for the help

[dcrouse087]

I'd guess its tannins from any wood or coco eco earth substrate.I dont know what your tank consists of. Even the clay dust from Clay LECA pellets can tint the water. if you have a filter just let it run and maybe swap out and cyle some fresh water into the mix to help speed up the leeching process. It should all settle down and clear up. I just started a new tank and its sound like the same situation just not as bad. I can see through my water but its got a brown tint.I rinsed and strained my clay pellets no minimise the water tinting. I can only wait and see how it looks in the morning.

[zach2011]

alrite thanks ill just keep doing partial water changes and see if that works

[happy toad]

Yeah, that's basically all you can do. Woods are the the major producers of tannins which cause the brown/black water. I'm not exactly sure which woods produce the most tannins, but I just recently got a piece or mopani wood and it seems to be leaching quite a bit. I never really new that LECA/coco fibers have tannins, though they are dusty and can cloud your water tas well.

Ideally you could soak the wood in a separate container, changing the water everyday, until the wood does not tint the water anymore. But in reality you could probably be soaking the wood for a month, so I just stuck my wood in a after a day of soaking. Having a good filter with a lot of carbon (chemical meadia) will help reduce the pace at which the water becomes tinted, but eventually your just going to have to do water changes when it gets bad. Hopefully after a while the wood will stop leaching. Good luck!

[zach2011]

yea thats the problem is the wood is foamed in place with great stuff so i decided to just fill in the pond and have a dissapearing stream/waterfall and get more land area

[Goanna]

Get as much of the heavy particulate out as you can by doing water changes, then if you still have issues you can put SeaChem Purigen into your filter. It absorbs tannins very quickly. It works great. Turned my first Paludariums water from looking like a cup of strong brewed tea, into crystal clear water in just a few hours.

Now I use it in all my tanks, whether they house fish, frogs, or a combination of both. It also absorbs toxins, and can be used as a carbon replacement. But, unlike carbon it wont strip out micro-nutrients for the plants, so it's safe for planted tanks.