Mopani wood

[tonymofo]

Has anyone used this wood. The directions say to soak for a couple weeks, well I have been letting this large piece of wood soak for two months and it is still turning the water dark brown. I have been changing the water every 3 days. What should I do????

 

[unstopable4700]

patience grasshopper

 

[joey02]

boil it if you can, or boil the water befor you put it in the bucket and change the water more often. when i prepar driftwood, i change the water 3 times a day with very hot or boiled water. this speeds it up alot. make sure to scrub it also. after all this i still found it to leach small amounts of tannins into the water, so i eventually switched to malaysian drift wood. i only had to prepare that for 4 for days and then it was fine. plus its half the cost of mopani and seems to look more natual as it is all one colour.

 

[ShadowBass]

boil it if you can, or boil the water befor you put it in the bucket and change the water more often. when i prepar driftwood, i change the water 3 times a day with very hot or boiled water. this speeds it up alot. make sure to scrub it also. after all this i still found it to leach small amounts of tannins into the water, so i eventually switched to malaysian drift wood. i only had to prepare that for 4 for days and then it was fine. plus its half the cost of mopani and seems to look more natual as it is all one colour.

I've had the same experience with mopani as malaysian, even after boiling either one. Big piece of malaysian I just put in my 90g without doing anything to it and the water didn't really get much of a brown tint. The little piece of malaysian I put in my 10g I boiled for a long time and it still turns the water brown. I think maybe the individual piece of wood has some to do with how bad it is.

Most of my mopani I put in without doing anything to, and yeah it turns the water a light brown, but water changes keep it from getting that bad. It doesn't hurt the fish or change the PH on my tanks so I don't worry about it *shrug*.

Tonymofo, some of the mopani I have has been in my tank for months and the water still has a light tint from the tannins, so you're gonna be waiting a long time. Try boiling it and it might help, but most likely it will still cause a slight bit of tint, just not as much. It can't hurt anyway.

 

[tonymofo]

I can't boil it the piece of wood is too big to fit into any pot. This piece of wood is like 15 inches both ways. I thinking about just throwing it in the tank. It shouldn't harm the fish right????

 

[ShadowBass]

I can't boil it the piece of wood is too big to fit into any pot. This piece of wood is like 15 inches both ways. I thinking about just throwing it in the tank. It shouldn't harm the fish right????

It MIGHT lower your pH if your water is extremely poorly buffered, but it's unlikely since you've already soaked it for 2 months. Other than that small possibility it won't do anything.

Check your pH daily after putting it in for awhile to see if there's any effect and do water changes accordingly. You should be fine. Just about all my mopani was put directly in the tank after buying it, I just rinsed it and my fish are fine. Some of it has been in there for 6 months or more.

 

[T1KARMANN]

i thought i was the other way round morpani wood sinks when you get it as it heavy and it wont tan the water

bogwood/drift wood floats and tans the water

 

[ShadowBass]

i thought i was the other way round morpani wood sinks when you get it as it heavy and it wont tan the water

bogwood/drift wood floats and tans the water

You're right that it sinks. It does tan the water though. Oddly enough the non-sinking wood I have in my native tank that's mounted to a rock base doesn't tan the water at all.

 

[rjmtx]

You're right that it sinks. It does tan the water though. Oddly enough the non-sinking wood I have in my native tank that's mounted to a rock base doesn't tan the water at all.

That's funny, I never thought about it, but I've had the same experience. On the other hand, I've seen mounted wood grow fungus, but never mopani... I've used lots of mopani and it's never hurt a fish, and I think the tannins (when kept under control) give a cool effect to the tank. We also have very alkaline water around here and it keeps it buffered so the pH doesn't crash.

 

[terd ferguson]

I boiled my mopani for hours and hours and it still leached tannins. I finally got tired of boiling it and threw it in the tank. The result was no brown water. Go figure. The wood did get a lot lighter colored from all the boiling though.