driftwood and africans/south americans

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sweeTang21

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 10, 2007
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Wisconsin
Hey all,

About 2 months ago i added some drift wood into my mixed cichlid tank. Obviously its the color of tea right now. I didnt have any way to boil the wood since one of them is 2.5 feet long...So needless to say, i was considering removing the wood and soaking seperatly in rubbermaid tub or something so that i can have the nice looks of my tank back. Any recommendations?

I also have a nice piece of rock. Not sure what type but its from the petstore so i know its tank safe. What should i do for preperation on that before adding into the tank?

No PH swings from the wood as of now, so i think all is well there. I currently have 2 massive oscars, 2 massive jacks and some medium sized red texas. 1 Mbuna and 2 venustus. the lady of the house gave me the okay to get a 300 or larger tank, so eventually i will be moving them around to species tanks etc. Unless, theres really no harm in having them all kind of mixed? i know its not natural but theres really no aggression between the different species. I feel i got rather lucky.
 
I keep a jack dempsey, black convict, and parrot in with my africans, no problems...I say if it works, why change it?

If you want the driftwood to stop leaking tannins then I would remove it and let it soak in a tub or bin

& theres not much you need to do to the rock before adding it...just give it a good rinse and maybe even a scrub as well :)
 
LilBabyEmma said:
Let the wood soak in just water? I have a peace of wood thats doing the same thing i wana soak how long should i let it soak
Click to expand...

Yup just let it soak in water, I would let it soak until it stops leaking tannins
 
uploadfromtaptalk1334342484214.jpg
Heres my peace of driftwood i found out in the woods i had it in my 35g tank last year but was making my tank brown. Its about 3ft long.
 
alright, well as of now, woods in a seperate tub, well trash can but we dont need to accurate...Im shooting for it to be done leaching in 2 months..According to my research thats a close enough guess as any.

The rock, washed and added. My fish love it. Im in the process of getting the monster app on my phone, so i can then download pics for everyone to see.

Im off to my local fish store to replace a venustus. I suspect he was just a little to small still and the oscars got at him. Which was weird because he was in the tank 2 weeks before he went missing...I ran the risk knowing it, so i cant be to upset. I also found some Mori Kaiiser's...They are gorgeous. Only 2 inches though so im going to set back up the 65 as a grow out tank for these fellows.

Any other good suggestions on fish? I cant seem to get lucky enough to find awsome fish around here. Wisconsin is just not what it used to be for fish.
 
A couple things to add about the soaking... Make sure you do keep changing the water in the "tub". Tannins can saturate the water and may get to a point where the leaching out is not occurring, but rather the opposite effect is occurring - just wasting your time.

Also, not sure your pH, but increasing pH also speeds up the process.

Where in WI are you? If you're getting Lake Michigan water, you're probably sitting at 7.6 give or take. Add baking soda to increase that tub's pH... And lastly, if you can, drag that tub outside when it's warm as warm water will also speed things up.


Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
 
in La Crosse, so from the mississippi. My water now is at 7.5, so its alright for the tank. I have been thinking of a few things though, my water is more green today then anything, so my second thought was maybe an algae bloom. it just seems weird that it would have happened the day after i put the driftwood in the tank .coincidence? I dont know lol. So i did a big water change, and im shutting off the lights for a day or two. Only running them a few hours in the AM for feeding. We shall see. I did a 50% water change and its as if i didnt do anything.
 
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