I had a 33 gallon fish tank for many years, up until about 12 years ago. At that time, I had to give up my fish tank, because I just did not have room for it any more. Well now, I've started up the hobby again, and made room for a new 72 gallon tank in my Living Room. I had to move some furniture around, but it fits perfectly.
I currently have 5 plecos in my tank (all different types). In my old tank (from 12 years ago), I used to have 2 plecos. When I first got my new fish tank (about 3 1/2 months ago) from a LFS, I had a list of several plecos which I was interested in choosing (for when the tank was all set up and ready to be populated). I had done a little reading on the different plecos, and some of them mentioned the need to have wood in the tank. I never had any real wood in my other tank (12 years ago), and my fish got along fine for the many years that I had them. Well, I asked this guy if he had any wood for this purpose, and he told me that he did not recommend I get any wood. He explained to me that the wood tends to turn the water brown and start to cloud it up, and it could also affect the PH balances in my water. OK... I just stuck with some nice tank decorations that look like tree stumps and logs (for the fish to swim around and hide).
When I acquired my most recent pleco from a different LFS, I told the salesman that I had 4 other plecos. He asked me what I was feeding my other plecos, and after I told him my routine, he said that this one should be fine on the same stuff. When he asked me if I had any wood in the tank for the plecos, I told him that I didn't. I had told him what the guy at the other LFS had told me. This salesman told me that wood is very important to have for plecos, not only as a part of their diet, but also as part of their natural habitat. He then told me that the placement of wood in my tank could cause what the other LFS had told me, but that I could avoid that by doing a very simple step. I selected 2 nice looking pieces of wood from this store. The salesman told me to take the wood, and boil it in a pot of water for about 30 minutes, and it would remove the tannins from the wood (which could cause all of the above mentioned).
OK... now more to my question...
As I took one of the pieces of wood and started to boil it in a pot, I saw the water turning very brown. After about 10 minutes, I spilled out all of the water and refilled the pot so that I could continue with this process. Each time, after the water came to a full boil, it would turn brown again. I just kept repeating this process for almost 3 hours (not the 30 minutes that the salesman told me to do), until the water was just a slight tint of brown. That piece of wood has now been placed in my fish tank. I have seen 2 of my plecos sucking on the wood, but only for a few minutes. They did not appear to be very interested in it, although I couldn't say if they may be going back to it at night (when everything is dark, and I'm not watching them). My question is, should I have boiled the wood as long as I did, or could I have removed some valuable nutrients for the plecos by boiling the wood as long as I did? Should I start all over again with a freshly bought piece of wood from the LFS?
I currently have 5 plecos in my tank (all different types). In my old tank (from 12 years ago), I used to have 2 plecos. When I first got my new fish tank (about 3 1/2 months ago) from a LFS, I had a list of several plecos which I was interested in choosing (for when the tank was all set up and ready to be populated). I had done a little reading on the different plecos, and some of them mentioned the need to have wood in the tank. I never had any real wood in my other tank (12 years ago), and my fish got along fine for the many years that I had them. Well, I asked this guy if he had any wood for this purpose, and he told me that he did not recommend I get any wood. He explained to me that the wood tends to turn the water brown and start to cloud it up, and it could also affect the PH balances in my water. OK... I just stuck with some nice tank decorations that look like tree stumps and logs (for the fish to swim around and hide).
When I acquired my most recent pleco from a different LFS, I told the salesman that I had 4 other plecos. He asked me what I was feeding my other plecos, and after I told him my routine, he said that this one should be fine on the same stuff. When he asked me if I had any wood in the tank for the plecos, I told him that I didn't. I had told him what the guy at the other LFS had told me. This salesman told me that wood is very important to have for plecos, not only as a part of their diet, but also as part of their natural habitat. He then told me that the placement of wood in my tank could cause what the other LFS had told me, but that I could avoid that by doing a very simple step. I selected 2 nice looking pieces of wood from this store. The salesman told me to take the wood, and boil it in a pot of water for about 30 minutes, and it would remove the tannins from the wood (which could cause all of the above mentioned).
OK... now more to my question...
As I took one of the pieces of wood and started to boil it in a pot, I saw the water turning very brown. After about 10 minutes, I spilled out all of the water and refilled the pot so that I could continue with this process. Each time, after the water came to a full boil, it would turn brown again. I just kept repeating this process for almost 3 hours (not the 30 minutes that the salesman told me to do), until the water was just a slight tint of brown. That piece of wood has now been placed in my fish tank. I have seen 2 of my plecos sucking on the wood, but only for a few minutes. They did not appear to be very interested in it, although I couldn't say if they may be going back to it at night (when everything is dark, and I'm not watching them). My question is, should I have boiled the wood as long as I did, or could I have removed some valuable nutrients for the plecos by boiling the wood as long as I did? Should I start all over again with a freshly bought piece of wood from the LFS?
pleco will suck on it if he will feel comfortable on wood,otherwise it will ignore it and suck on something else 
