Mopani roots and Driftwood

[Mr_Altepeter]

Again Jake is right on the money. Seems to be a habit.... He is right though the tannins will eventually fade out of your tank. There are some out there who actually try to keep a very weak tea color to their water. Depends on what type of set-up you are trying to go for I suppose.

 

[JakeH]

I just picked up 2 new pieces today. They're gonna get covered in java moss, so I dont want the fuzz, but I do want the tannins. I'm gonna try the microwave instead of boiling & see how that goes...

 

[poly-nomial]

All of my pieces sank immediately. I have 3 pieces.

 

[ccebr]

I placed large rocks on the wood for about 3 weeks before it stayed submerged by itself. Let the wood soak, with regular water changes over the space of a month, in a container outside the tank. No staining of the water as a result. Used a wire brush to initially remove any growth of fungi.

 

[Dreamsing]

Thats the tannins staining the water. Get used to it if you didnt boil the wood first... Its very good for the fish, but looks pretty rough for the first week. Water changes & carbon in the filter will help remove it, but if your piece was too big to boil I would expect it to stick around for a while.

Tannins are only good for fish that thrive in acidic water. I run a blackwater tank for my South American pike and my Rhino Pleco because it's their natural habitat and they love having their PH around 6.6. I would recommend strongly against using any kind of drift wood if there are going to be African Cichlids in the tank or any other fish that likes hard or high PH water.

The drift wood will result in calcium being leached out of the water along with a drop in PH and the appearance of an Ammonia compound that shows up in the liquid test kits (the ammonia is from the wood breaking down).

As far as the wood itself, I got lots of larger pices and let them prop against the lip at the top of the tank when they float. There's a picture of my tank on my profile page if you're curious how that looks.

 

[JakeH]

I placed large rocks on the wood for about 3 weeks before it stayed submerged by itself. Let the wood soak, with regular water changes over the space of a month, in a container outside the tank. No staining of the water as a result. Used a wire brush to initially remove any growth of fungi.

Again, if you have to weigh it down, its not Mopani. And there's no way that soaking alone will remove all the tannin from Mopani. That would take months. You probably had another kind of wood that was mislabeled or something... It happens pretty often.

 

[JakeH]

Tannins are only good for fish that thrive in acidic water. I run a blackwater tank for my South American pike and my Rhino Pleco because it's their natural habitat and they love having their PH around 6.6. I would recommend strongly against using any kind of drift wood if there are going to be African Cichlids in the tank or any other fish that likes hard or high PH water.

The drift wood will result in calcium being leached out of the water along with a drop in PH and the appearance of an Ammonia compound that shows up in the liquid test kits (the ammonia is from the wood breaking down).

As far as the wood itself, I got lots of larger pices and let them prop against the lip at the top of the tank when they float. There's a picture of my tank on my profile page if you're curious how that looks.

You are correct that africans & other hardwater/high pH fish will not appreciate the pH drop, but it wont be that drastic & can easily be buffered out with some crushed coral.

That mysterious "ammonia compound" is the yellowish tannin staining the water & messing up your color chart, not actual ammonia and not from the wood breaking down...