New Plants & Amber-Colored Water

[flipnap]

Heya Linda, yep, im pretty positive its your driftwood.. Ive boiled mine for a few hours but it still leeches a bit.. Ive found the best help to keep the water clear is using activated carbon.. purigen is a synthetic resin thta works really well and can be "regenerated" in bleach water.. heres some more info for you.. but purigen is whats known as a "water polisher" and can help to control your levels as well..

Purigen

good luck, and remember, your tannins from the driftwood arent really that bad, relatively speaking.. not as bad as say, ammonia or nitrites.. Good luck.. once everythings balanced out, try for a few more clown loaches.. get more than one though.. theyre full of personailty

[jaidexl]

Originally Posted by Linda

There are confliction suggestions for water flow: one says to increase, the other to decrease (and decrease air bubbles). Since I've had the water flow at max. speed, as well as the air stone, I'll try jaidexl's suggestion and reduce both.

Just wanted to let you know the downside in planted tanks when it comes to too much flow, but be all means this doesn't mean problems have never risen from not enough flow. If your plants are doing good then don't hesitate to do what you have been. Bubbles, on the other hand, serve no purpose beyond our own aesthetic pleasure, a good surface area with some movement is sufficient for aeration, especially with healthy plants giving off O2 during the day, the bubbles will only carry their precious CO2 away. I know they can be hard to give up, lol, but once I finally gave in, my plants sprung forth and took over the job of making things pretty.

[Linda]

Originally Posted by jaidexl

Just wanted to let you know the downside in planted tanks when it comes to too much flow, but be all means this doesn't mean problems have never risen from not enough flow. If your plants are doing good then don't hesitate to do what you have been. Bubbles, on the other hand, serve no purpose beyond our own aesthetic pleasure, a good surface area with some movement is sufficient for aeration, especially with healthy plants giving off O2 during the day, the bubbles will only carry their precious CO2 away. I know they can be hard to give up, lol, but once I finally gave in, my plants sprung forth and took over the job of making things pretty.

I hate the bubbles - too noisy messy. The plants are struggling a bit. My pH is too high, I think. It's 8.1. I'm not giving up - the real thing is so much more asthetic than plastic!

[Linda]

Originally Posted by flipnap

Heya Linda, yep, im pretty positive its your driftwood.. Ive boiled mine for a few hours but it still leeches a bit.. Ive found the best help to keep the water clear is using activated carbon.. purigen is a synthetic resin thta works really well and can be "regenerated" in bleach water.. heres some more info for you.. but purigen is whats known as a "water polisher" and can help to control your levels as well..

Purigen

good luck, and remember, your tannins from the driftwood arent really that bad, relatively speaking.. not as bad as say, ammonia or nitrites.. Good luck.. once everythings balanced out, try for a few more clown loaches.. get more than one though.. theyre full of personailty

As suggested, filter got a thorough cleaning, adding a little extra charcoal (oh, I mean carbon...hee hee) to the bio bag, and a small water change. I'll just keep on it. I considered boiling it, but thought that to be more trouble that periodic water changes. I'll check out the Purigen - thanks!