Vera

And once you stop fighting it, the wood stops being a problem and starts being a feature you paid for.

The other option is to decide you like it, which is not a joke: a lot of people end up here.

Tannin-stained water is what a great many tropical fish actually come from. Chocolate gurami, many tetras, licorice gourami, most soft-water species. The colour is a feature in a blackwater setup and people add leaf litter and cones specifically to get it, then complain when it fades.

It also does two things worth having: it takes the glare off a tank that is slightly overlit, and it makes colours on the fish read much better than they do against bright clear water, particularly reds.

On the plant question, since that is the practical worry: the plants that struggle in stained water are the demanding carpeting ones that already want a lot of light. Anubias, java fern, cryptocorynes, bucephalandra, most stems - completely fine, and crypts in particular tend to look better.

Worth living with for a month before you buy anything. It fades gradually, and the version you have at week eight is usually much less dramatic than the swamp your partner is objecting to now.