red water

Question
hey there, i just aquired a 46 gallon bow faced tank.  i have balas, mollies a 4.5 inch tri color and a blue lobster.  for my ornamentation i chose red slate, drift wood from malaysia and a stone, not sure of the name, but quite pourous, orange in colour with many pockets.  after a week post setup, i noticed my water had changed to a reddish hue of a colour.  it makes the tank dark, murky and ugly, please help me identify the culprit, so that i might get my tank back to a vibrant-luminous appearance.

Answer
Tannins.

They leach from the wood into the water.

You can boil your wood to remove some of the tannins, but they will come back.

Don't worry, all the tannins will eventually go away. It is a process all new wood goes through. Keep up regular water changes, and it should be gone in a few weeks.

-Nick