# Are tannins dangerous?



## afcno9 (Dec 27, 2003)

A friend of mine is just about to bring over a pice of wood that he put into his tank that he has now sold. But he said that although hes soaked it twice it is still creating a brown colour liquid. I assume that this is the tannins leaching out. Do i need to continue soaking it until there nothing more running from the wood?
Thanks in advance!


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## Grosse Gurke (Jan 3, 2003)

I like the tannins. They can soften the water and lower the ph, but other than that it is fine.

Moved to water chem!


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## afcno9 (Dec 27, 2003)

so tannins arent dangerous in any way? My ph is 7 so i guess softeniing it up a bit would be a good thing anyway.


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## Grosse Gurke (Jan 3, 2003)

If your ph is stable, meaning your kh is high enough, it will be fine.


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## alexm (Aug 18, 2003)

I had bits of wood soaking in the bath for weeks to get the worst of the tannins out. As grosse gurke said, they will make the water slightly more acidic and softer, which is closer to authentic amazonian conditions which is a good thing.

My wood continued to make the water very dark for a while, but I added some carbon to the filter to take some of it out because I was getting brown algae through lack of light.

A little tint to the water is good because it just takes the harshness out of the light for the fish without spoiling the look of the tank.


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## mrnewbie (Apr 14, 2004)

the tannins are good for the p's it helps mimic their natural enviroment ,also helps with dimming the light slightly


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## hastatus (Jan 16, 2003)

You have to be very careful of the type of woods you use. Some are oily, others can leech out some dangerous chemicals that can actually kill your fish. I would not recommend taking wild wood from a local pond, lake, river unless you know what kind it is, do some research and make sure it is safe.

Remember, you are dealing with an enclosed system (the aquario) different from a flowing river, pond or lake.


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