# too much tannin in water?



## Twilight Storm (Apr 14, 2011)

I have Mopani wood in my tanks but one now, It releases quite a bit of tannins into the water very quickly. The color of the water doesn't bother me and the fish seem to enjoy it. (dark red colored water within a day or 2)

I have the biggest piece of wood in my 5 gallon with my crowntail and he is changing colors I am guessing because of the tannins. 

Can there be too much tannin in the water? 

Can this hurt your fish eventually?


----------



## Laki (Aug 24, 2011)

As far as my knowledge goes, the blacker the water=the better. There is nobody in Thailand and other paddies pulling out the leaves to control the tannins so I think it's okay as long as regular water maintenance is in check


----------



## laoshun (Apr 3, 2012)

Just do normal scheduled water change but a 50% because most likely the wood will release more again because my tank is like that.


----------



## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

The only thing you have to worry about is if you water is soft with a low KH, the release of lots of tannins can push the pH right down in only a short matter of time.

This used to happen to me and it used to cause some of my bettas to produce excess slime coat as I think it irritated them.

Otherwise if your water is stable and the pH is only gradually decreasing, there's no problem with having very dark water. If you have live plants however, it will dilute the amount of light available to them.


----------



## Twilight Storm (Apr 14, 2011)

Almost out of my supply of the API 5 in 1 test strips (Yes yes I know they aren't as accurate as the kit but they are finally almost gone)

After having the wood in the aquariums for a couple weeks now it hasn't done too much to the water results. 

Nitrates in all tanks are less then 20 ppm
Nitrites are 0
PH is still around 8.5 in all tanks except 1 which is down to 8.0 (has the largest piece of wood)
KH is still 240 on strip (I don't think I have soft water  )
GH is still 180 (in all tanks) 

The plants I have are all low light plants under incandescent 10 watt bulbs. I want to pick up water wisteria too but I think that would still be ok with what I have. (and one LED hood not recommended for plants- but they are still doing fine.)

I would like to see what the master test kit has to say about my KH and GH when I pick one up if it goes higher then 240/180.

Good to know it's nothing to freak out about! Thank you everyone.


----------

