Smelly driftwood that makes the water brown!!

[kerisb]

Only ever had one piece of driftwood in my tanks before, but a tank I got a few months ago came with three oieces of driftwood.   COuldn't figure out why this tank stunk and the others didn't........smelt like walking into a greenhouse and smelling that musty wet dirt smell.    Discovered while changing the tanks around that it is the driftwood..........it also seems to be very soft and small pieces fall off when touched.  also seems to turn the water brown.     When I cleaned the tank I did do a good cleaning of this wood and it seemed to take the soft top layer off the wood, but turned the water completely almost black while I was doing this.  Not sure what kind of wood it is.

Just wondering if anyone else has encountered this and maybe have some info on it.

[estuary]

sounds like the wood is rotten i would remove it asap,(nitrate and amonia spikes)

[cichlidicted]

am curious, what causes the driftwood to rot ?!

[caretaker]

 


water, type of wood, age of wood - I collect my driftwood from the along the shores of mooneys bay and yes some of the wood rots and others slowly disappears. Most found driftwood releases tannins that discolours the water to a light brown. Tannins will not harm your aquarium inhabitants including plants but it will lower the pH slightly over time.

Google "aquarium driftwood"

[ciaus]

Filtration will also eventually catch up to the tannis in the water and clear it, but it will take weeks...

[Rob Labonte]

 


water, type of wood, age of wood - I collect my driftwood from the along the shores of mooneys bay and yes some of the wood rots and others slowly disappears. Most found driftwood releases tannins that discolours the water to a light brown. Tannins will not harm your aquarium inhabitants including plants but it will lower the pH slightly over time.

Google "aquarium driftwood"

ummm.....If your driftwood is from the ottawa river.......its not the wood thats causing the smell or brown color. Its the sh*t that came with that wood. lol

I would never put anything from that river in my tanks, even if cured. That river is nasty. I will never swim or go near it again.

If your going to take driftwood from nature, I would suggest to take it from a clean body of water.

[caretaker]

 mooneys bay is not on the Ottawa river

And the driftwood I retrieve is not smelly - just a tea colour for while curing.

  Rob! Where do you think your tap water comes from?

[Brine]

Toss the crappy driftwood and go to the Giant Auction and get some good stuff.

[mike1567]

Ottawa river water  is clean as far as rivers go, our cottage in Constance Bay, OTTAWA, gets its water from about 10 feet pass the drop off, it is tested weekly and passes with flying colours

Just to see , We have set in bottle water and city tap water to get tested and to our surprise the bottle water has very poor ratings and the city water has the most chemicals

now the Rideau river is a fish of a different colour!

[Rob Labonte]

mooneys bay is not on the Ottawa river

And the driftwood I retrieve is not smelly - just a tea colour for while curing.

  Rob! Where do you think your tap water comes from?

Do you forget the title of your own thread??  "smelly driftwood"

then you say ...oh its not smelly driftwood. which one is it?


and mooneys bay is not on the ottawa river??? ok, get technical. but mooneys bay is part of the ottawa river waterway system and is just as dirty.

yes I know tap water comes from the rivers. Im not an idiot. but, this water is highly filtered and chlorinated. not that I like drinking chemed up swamp water but, hey, this is the city we live in.

and people that say the ottawa  river (or river system, for caretaker) is clean....

pick up a newspaper every once and awhile and see how much sewage is being spewed into that river on a weekly basis. Also, watch the beach reports and see how many times these beaches are CLOSED due to e-coli. but people dont look these things up so people swim in swamp water....

and also think its ok to put things out of the ottawa river into their tanks.

Im not trying to be a hardass, but the ottawa river and rivers are dirtier than people realize.