General Care Discussion :: just got cork bark. need to rinse?

[Meta]

just got some cork bark i wanna use for basking dock. do i need to rinse it for a while or can i put it right in?

[jenaero]

You'll want to rinse it probably a few times. It'll still cloud up the water a bit but if you've got a good filter it should be fine.

[marisa]

Some corkbark darkens the water more than others. I've had some pieces that I soaked for a few days, changing the water as it darkened until the leaching of tannin lessened and I've had some pieces that needed very little soaking and were basically just put in the tank. The tannin isn't bad for your turtle, and if it leaches tannin and the color doesn't bother you, you can give it a quick clean (remove any loose debris), rinse and put it in the tank. You can do partial water changes to minimize the color until most of the tannin is gone.