First Planted Tank, Tannins in Soil?

[1980tom]

Hi guys I am currently setting up my first dirted tank. I have had tropical fish for a few years, then for the last 6 years I have only had a marine aquarium. The size of the tanks have grown steadily and the tank I am setting up now is 6 x 2 x 2.5. It has a 5 foot sump where I have added 30kg of Alfagrog, it has a 12,000 litres per hour fully adjustable return pump which I plan on having as low as possible, it has a pond UV sterilizer also fed from the return pump and have fully customisable LED lighting which I can adjust the spectrum and intensity on. I added about 1 to 1.5 inch of a mixture of John Innes No.3 and Peat Moss and topped of with anouther inch of 1 - 3mm sand. Over the past 2 weeks I have filled, let sit and then emptied the tank quite a few times but still the water turns yellow. Am I wasting my time trying to get this to clear or will the soil stop releasing tannins eventually? I really would like to get some plants and fish in there at some point!!

Thanking you in advance for your help, regards Tom.

 

[AverageWhiteBloke]

You could try running some activated carbon in the tank or purigen. The tannins will stop releasing eventually.

 

[tam]

The tannins won't hurt the fish as long as everything else is good. They do cut down on light so depends how bright your light is v. amount of tannin v. type of plant. You could go for a blackwater 😉

 

[AverageWhiteBloke]

If anything the the tannins will benefit the fish. I wouldn't hold back on getting the plants in there. Most people will start tanks off with reduced lighting to prevent algae break outs until the tank matures and the plants start filling out. In your case the tannins are reducing the lighting for you in a good way without actually reducing the lighting so to speak. As the tannins wear off it will be like gradually increasing lighting.

Using activated carbon will certainly reduced tannins quicker and from what I understand has negligible effect on inorganic ferts.

Sent from my STH100-2 using Tapatalk

 

[1980tom]

Thank you both for the replies, given the advice above, I think I will do one more complete water change (Close to it), then start to get the plants in there this week. I won't bother with the carbon if eventually the water will get clearer with 50% weekly water changes.

 

[1980tom]

Some pictures of the start of this journey