I've bought a log for my fish aquarium, but it's turning the water yellowish. Is this normal?

Question

this piece of log is treated and bought from a aquarium shop.

Answer 1

That is pretty much normal. Driftwood often does this in tanks. If the color is unappealing to you return it for another piece. As this happens it is also lowering the pH of the water, which depending on your fish could be good or bad.

MM

Answer 2

What kind of log do you have? Is it driftwood? depending on what you have and if it was cured at the aquarium will depend on how long this will last. To answer your question simply the answer would be yes, it is normal. However I think that you want a more specific answer. If it is driftwood then it should stop soon. If not then it will last for however long it takes to take all the tanins out of it's system. What type of tank to do you have? salt or fresh? What I would do to speed this up is to get a separate tank (bucket, cooler, etc) and put water in it and also put a powerhead in there to get the water flow going. This should speed up the process, but I'm just guessing at the physics envolved. It doesn't harm the fish however, it just isn't appealing to the eye.

Answer 3

It seems to me that you bought the log to make your aquarium more natural looking. This is exactly what happened. Often water in nature that has a log in it also turns kind of yellowish because of the Tannins in the wood. Tannins are the same things in tea that makes tea turn brown when it steeped. You are in essence making log tea with your aquarium.

Here's the thing, most logs are not toxic by themselves to your fish, and since they are so common in nature, it is actually something fish get used to, but in your case, the concentration of the Tannins in your aquarium may go too high because there is no where for them to go, like there would in a river or pond.

What I suggest is if you want to keep the log, take it out of your aquarium, and get a 5 gallon bucket of water. Make Tea. Let it steep for a while and keep cycling the water until the tannins have been released. Same thing that's happening in your tank now, but without having to worry about whether or not it's effecting your fish.

Answer 4

The log is leeching tanins into the water and this is completely harmless to the fish. Depending on what type of wood it will stop in days, weeks, months, or never. Some people soak the wood for a week before introducing it into the tank, some boil it to try to speed up the process, and others just leave it and deal with the yellow water for a while. Whatever you decide to do, it's nothing to stress about.

Answer 5

So far the answers you got are right on target. Three solutions: make tea like one guy suggested by soaking the log, leave it alone because over time it'll pass, and the one which no one has suggested (which I did because I don't like waiting and the first two options involve waiting) spray a couple of coats of clear coat acrylic spray. You would think the chemicals would be dangerous but if you let it dry properly if works like a charm. I did it with my tank and 24hrs later I put 3 discus in the tank and they survived like champs.