Pet Forum / Aquaria / General / December 2005

Yep it will do....all of my tanks with driftwood have water with a
brownish tinge. It won't hurt any fish but if you have a problem with
the colour and haven't added any fish yet take it out and change most if
not all of the water. Personally I like it, but it does mess up the
results on ammonia testing as the water has the same tinge as a low
positive result...

You could try soaking it before adding it...but as I have had driftwood
in one tank for 20 months plus and still have weak tea coloured water
I'm not sure that it would help....

Gill

If you don't like the color, it's pretty harmless, add activated carbon
to whatever filter you are running. Replace the carbon when the tea
color returns. Oh, I wouldn't do this if you have real plants though.
Carbon removes a great deal of nutrients (good and bad) from the water.

The "tea" color is tannic acid. It's possible it could make your water
slightly more acidic, but it's pretty weak as far as acids go. The
yellow will go away with time. It will likely be gone in 6-12 months.
Don't worry about it.