Tannins - how to remove???

[nicholas76]

gday guys,

thought the resident forum plant gurus might know better.


how do i remove tannins without ripping out my drift wood or the usual 5 billion w/c a week. :lol:

im finding that my tank quickly regains the tea colour look after a day from w/c. :?

Ive been told biozorb despite being expensive can play havick with your ph.

thought ideas please!

[marg]

Nicholas,

In my experience the only way to get rid of Tannins is frequent water changes. I myself would put the Driftwood into my Breeding Tanks, but if you are not into Breeding and it is really bothering you, put the Driftwood in a plastic tub and over a few weeks continually change the water till it lightens up if you don't want it continually colouring your Tank.

Hope this helps,

Marg.

[nicholas76]

HI Marg,

cheers mate the issue at hand is the drift wood piece I have in the tank is BIg about 3 ft long and just under 2 ft high.

The cure would have been to treat the timber prior to putting it in! howver now im trying to work around not pulling it out and doing so.

w/c could take years to remove all the tannin. I have one piece from like 4 years ago that is still producing.

The colouring isnt too bad but it really hides the colour of your fish especially if you have reds and blues.


Maybe bio zorb is the only option then

[Dave001]

Activated carbon in the filter should help to remove the tanins, but it will also remove nutrients needed for plants if you have them.
I'd still do at least a 25% water change each week (if it was my tank, I'd do 50%), just in case it's leeching something bad into the water as well as the tanins.

Dave

[Dee]

G'day Nick :)

The 3 ways i know of to remove tannins are -

1. Lotsa big WC's, but as you have stated the tannins will re appear until the wood has leached all its tannins.

2. Carbon will remove tannins, but will need to be replaced approx every two weeks.

3. I have found through my own experience, that a UV will also remove tannins. Since I have been using a UV, I have had no tannins in my tank and I have 2 large chunks of DW in there. I maybe wrong on this one, but this is what i have found.

HTH,

Cheers,

Dee :)

[nicholas76]

cheers mate

sounds lazy but i really wanted to aviod pulling the cannister apart.

I might invest in a seperate cannister and fill it with carbon. Highly underated and can produce sparkling clean water!

[taksan]

biochemzorb is the only way to effectively remove tannins
It doesn't touch your PH

[nicholas76]

hi Taksan

how is it used? how long does it last and cost?

cheers

[taksan]

In reality it lasts about 4 weeks for lightly stained water and about 2 weeks for tanks like mine that are chock full of driftwood.
You must use one pouch per 200 litres of water I actually do what you suggested and use deadicated Eheim 2217's on my big tanks full of biochem 7-8 bags each.
On my smaller tanks I just drop a bag in the top of the cannister or in the return of the sumps.
Biochem isn't cheap ...but you can buy it in a bucket of 12 pouches for under $12 a bag don't pay $25 or $30 in the single pouch packs as its false economy and believe me onch you start using it you will never stop.
People often ask me why my tanks are always so crystel clear looking and the answer is biochem zorb. I've reached the point where its in all my tanks and tannins are a distant memory.

[samir]

People often ask me why my tanks are always so crystel clear looking and the answer is biochem zorb. I've reached the point where its in all my tanks and tannins are a distant memory.
hehe you sound like an infomercial.LOL :lol: :lol: thanks for the info will give that a try

[Ben]

Unlike infomercials, this is the TRUTH!!

works a treat! i use bio chem aswell!

very easy to use.

as soon as the water starts to discolour again, time to change pouches.

[nicholas76]

Whats the average life span of a bag ? and cost?

[Ben]

If you purchase as single pouches it will cost around the 25 mark.

http://www.aquariumproductswholesale.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=669

How long it lasts depends is kinda like asking how long is a piece of string..

There are a few factors like how many impurities are in the water, how much water is being passed through the pouch etc etc.

I think in your case Nick it will last around 8 weeks.

But you will be amazed on how crystal clear the water is !!

HTH
Ben

[nicholas76]

Great !

ive placed an order for 2 packets to give it a test drive.

noticed there was a nitra zorb as well on the market. Do you guys use this as well?

also.... do you still bother using chlorine removers in conjuction with this item.

[taksan]

Yep we use nitra zorb ..... if you want less then 5ppm nitrate every time ...use it
And yes mate ...you still use prime with it

[nicholas76]

cheers Taksan!

[Dee]

G'day Nick,

Please keep usposted with results from using the above mentioned products, I will be very intrested to see how it goes mate.

Cheers,

Dee :)

[nicholas76]

Not a problem shall do

I have ordered some nitrazorb as well.


if any of you guys are interested in trying it too subscape aquariam is selling the stuff in lose packets at $22 a pop. Same thing but they buy it in bulk and sell it out of the pack.

PS the fire rubys have gone into breeding mode. Heavy cleaning now as both fish are working 2 diffrent spots.

[nicholas76]

Just thought Id update those who were interested

My tank holds about 460 litres, planted with a fair amount of driftwood.

Its been about 4-5 weeks and the bio zorb held up fine, have not seen tannin.

I used only one puch of biozorb.