[Guest]

i just finished a tank with a water fall in it. Around the pond area i place some great stuff with brown silicone and coco fiber to achieve a more natural look. i noticed that alot of the coco fiber has been coming off where the waterfall water has been contacting it, and the fibers are now in the flase bottom water, turning it a tan color. Will this change over time as the fibers settle to the bottom, or will the water stay dirty looking? I also noticed that i have growing white areas where there must not have been enough silicone on the background. Before I planted the tank, i touched up some of the areas with paint, but now that i am misting it more, these gaps are growing. Any suggestions on how to cover the gaps in an already planted viv? Thanks for the help,
-joe

 

[Dane]

What kind of paint did you use? It's always better to use the black or brown silicone to avoid this kind of problem. And yes, it is likely that your water will always be that brown color. It's just the nature of working with coco products.

 

[Derek Benson]

This brings up a simialr question of mine. If I use Great Stuff as a divider for substrate and water, if I coat it with silicone and bed-b-east, will it cause any harmful effects to the frogs? I did not realize that the cocoa bedding would come off, so maybe jsut silicone? Not meant to hijack, jsut exploit a different area of same question.

 

[Guest]

Derek:
My coco fiber came off and i cant see any problems if u use it in your substrate it would enter the water vnentually anyway so i think there would be no problem, but why bother to coer it in fiber if it is going to be undergroound anyway why not just cover it with silicone and be done with it?

G.G:
I had this brown water from the coco aswell, it is just the tanin from the fiber. My water was brown for a while but now several months later it is crystal clear.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for all of your help. Minutes ago i put the aratus in their new tank and they seem to love it, and dont seem anywhere near as shy as they were when they were quarentined in there smaller tank.
-Joe

 

[Guest]

d

This happened in mine too. For some reason the water seems to take a while to culture the riverbed. After some time the color stops leeching and seems to settle out. You can speed it up by changing the water more than normal, but it will leach for a while.

You can try to put a few aquatic plants in it and they should filter it a certain amount.