Need help
 

2 things
first will i need a filter in a 6 gallon tank I've just set up

ans second thing my water keeps going yellow/yellow brown in a tank i set up about 2 months ago, its got a miracle gro organic soil and lots of plants, it a 30G tank but barely half full cause i keep newts in it what can i do?

oh and plants have grown much more now and i added lots of dwarf hair grass in one corner

What is your cap for the soil and how thick is it? It might not even be the miracle grow...

If you didn't take out the wood chips from the miraclegro, that's prolly what's causing the brown coloring. One way you can know for sure is to set up two glass cups with tank water in each. Then put soil in one, and gravel in the other, and wait for 24 hours and see what you see.

that piece of driftwood could be leeching tannins

Activated carbon will clear your water up. If it's a leeching issue, could try running a filter with carbon until the leeching stops.

no i didn't take out wood chips actually now I've thought about it, and the wood is new and now you mention it i think it happened in the starter tank with that wood and it was bare bottom how can i make it so the wood doesn't release tannins also, and won't active carbon do something to bacteria or CO2 a read something that active carbon shouldn't be put in walstad tank

I am having the same problem, and I used MGOPM. No matter what I do, the tannins will not go away. No matter how much carbon I put in the filter, or how many water changes I do, it's still there. It's only been about three weeks for me, though, so maybe time will help for both of us. Good luck!

I run dirted tanks and havn't run into persistent water clouding issues even after I have accidentally broken the cap on occaison during WC's. Carbon has cleared up any cloudiness after flooding a tank for me, so I am not sure what the issue is with amajoh's tank. Cap too thin?

newt newbie, it's not necessary to run activated carbon in a planted tank, but it can be used as a tool to address certain issues, such as excessive tannins, heavy metals, certain medications, etc. It's actually a great substrate for bacteria to grow on, as it is very porous. No issues that I am aware of with c02. The new wood is almost certainly your problem. You should be fine running carbon until it stops leeching tanins.

i might just put that bit of wood in my high tech tank cause that has active carbon filter and wait for it to stop leeching tannins then thanks every one