Bill wrote:
Elaine T Spaketh Thusly:


Man, oh man am I getting blackwater from my big pieces of Mopani in the
new tank. NetMax was right. I have tea colored water despite using
fresh carbon, and the pH is starting to fall a bit. Good thing all the
fish in there are sof****er.

Imagine what it would look like if you weren't running it through carbon!

Did you soak it first? I've had best results by tossing it in a 5 gal bucket
and changing all the water once or twice a day for a few weeks - until it
sinks on its own. Not with Mopani, but other woods. Kept a rock on top
initially to hold it down. The water was REALLY dark at first, but was
noticably better after a week or 10 days. When it finally made it to the tank
it darkened the water but a little carbon (about a half cup in my Magnum)
cleared it up and kept it clear.
Now that I think of it, this was wood I dug up myself, so I added a little
bleach the first few times to sterilize it and used very hot water. It
lightened the already light areas, but didn't affect the darker ones.

--
Bill H. [my "reply to" address is real]
www.necka.net
Molon Labe!

Well, I soaked it for 2 weeks with daily water changes. The first
couple of days I got very dark water, then a medium color for the rest
of the two weeks. I Googled for info and most people said Mopani can
leach tannins for months. I'm not worried about it; the fish I have
should actually prefer those conditions. If the water gets too dark for
plants despite the carbon in my Aquaclear, I'll add more carbon by using
an air-driven box filter.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com