Red colour

Question
I have a 100 litre tank and have recently rearranged it so it is all nautral with real plants a realistic 3d background, after I had placed my two reasonbly large drift wood into my tank the next day the water had turned a redish colour which my driftwood is also reddish, I had change about 20% it has got little better. My question is how long will it take to get back to being crystal clear I did by mastake put in accuclear because it was a little cloudy ,is this normal after u put in treated drift wood.

Answer
Hi Stephen,

Introducing driftwood into a tank requires a pre-treatment. The red-brown color is tannins (a natural pigment) leaching out of the wood. If you just throw the wood into the tank, your water will never clear up. It needs to be pre-soaked, boiled, and scrubbed. Take your driftwood out of the tank, and do the following.

Get a large bucket, that will fit your driftwood in.

Wet the wood, and get an old toothbrush or brush. Scrub the wood, and remove any surface blemishes, etc.

Fill up the bucket with water, and put your driftwood in. Leave it there for a day or two, until the water becomes stained. When it becomes deeply stained, replace the water with freshwater, and soak again. Soak until there is little color leaching out of the wood.

After this process (may take up to a week or two) , get a large pot, and fill it up with water. Boil the water on the stove, and place your driftwood in the boiling water for 5 minutes. If you do not have a large pot, just pour boiling water into the bucket.

After that, just rinse your wood with cool water and it's done!

Good Luck, and Happy Fishkeeping!