Speaking of Driftwood...

[akiso914]

I used to have a nice piece of driftwood in my tank, but it dyed the water a dark tea brown! I thought it was just doing this because it was new, so i changed the water extra and thought maybe it would become less tea-like after a couple months, but that driftwood kept the water a dark tea color. I took the piece out eventually because it was just made things a bit dark in there. Is there any way to treat a dark piece of hardwood so it doesn't act like a big tea bag? Its actually a tree root base, not driftwood, the petshop owner told me.

 

[Luca1980]

The only thing to do is large, regular water changes - 50% weekly. The tannins will stop leaching with time, but this will depend on the species of wood you have. Also, depending on the size of your wood and the size of you tank, it can really change the water chemistry over time - softening the water quite a bit. Keep an eye on this with an API test kit - I have no doubt that axies would be sensitive to fluctuations in pH levels.