# Drift wood in low-tech tanks?



## frozenbarb (Dec 16, 2006)

What kind of fishes do you have.
And the water color isnt that bad. It lowers Ph , good from Some critters
I used to hate tannins but now i like it, The natural Feelings

BOIL THE WOOD 10 TIME ! boil everyday. It should leech it out.
Thats when The people that you live with say that your crazy.
Cooking wood in a pot on the stove -.-


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## Harry Muscle (Mar 13, 2007)

frozenbarb said:


> What kind of fishes do you have.
> And the water color isnt that bad. It lowers Ph , good from Some critters
> I used to hate tannins but now i like it, The natural Feelings


Or you could get some really really really really really really really really  old drift wood that has already leached all it's tannins ... that's what I did. Not the easiest wood to find (found it on a beach in South Carolina) but well worth it. It's still lowering my pH a little bit (0.4 degrees) but no change in water color.

Harry


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## BentZero (Oct 6, 2007)

I live in Charleston. Maybe I should visit the beach.  I don't have any fish in the tank. In fact, there's nothing in the tank. I'm in the process of setting up my first tank. If Lesco would hurry up and get in my SMS I'd be ready to go.


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## LordMaximo (Aug 31, 2007)

It doesn't matter how old the wood is, nor how long it has been sitting. Cause once you place it in your tank, it only takes a week to saturate the old log and it will still leach until it is all gone. I boiled a piece for two weeks and it still has a leach going into the water. The colors are like a natural pond or old crreek, the fish are happy, the water changes are once a week and the pH is slowly getting into a normal range. My water is high in the k and pH numbers. Nearly 8.5 out of the tap. So the acids are good.

Maximo


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## Will91 (Oct 15, 2007)

*consider African root wood or African mopani wood*

Hi all:

I just went through this recently. I saw some wood that looked like driftwood at my lfs. It was already in a tank and I was told it was African root wood. It looks like driftwood but is a very beautiful, brown colored wood. I have since learned that there are two types of African wood sold - root wood and mopani wood. The mopani wood tends to be two toned in color and the root wood more gnarled in appearance.

Boiling the wood is definitely a good thing to do. This accomplishes two things - killing any nasties and accelerating the tannin release process. Even though this piece of wood had been in the lfs tank for 6 months, I boiled it for about an hour and the water turned slightly brownish red. If you buy a fresh piece, boiling it will help leach the tannic acid as well as get it water logged so it doesn't float. 

This site has a picture of the African root wood. You can google root wood or mopani wood and find some retailers. Good luck with your choices.

http://www.floridadriftwood.com/driftwood.html
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/lighting/52798-ge-10k-bulbs.html


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## bpmox (Jun 16, 2007)

I've never bought driftwood from Florida Driftwood, but I did order some plants last year and they arrived in the worst condition of any plants I've ever recieved through the mail, even the java moss was dead. I won't get into it but I wanted to throw a word of caution out there about this particular vendor, if you search around you'll find many complaints about their practices.


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## Mad78 (Oct 23, 2007)

i took a cool peice of wood from my neighbors yard, boiled the sucker for 4 hours straight changing the water often and scrubbing as i went along, never had a problem with it, no water color changes, ph is normal, and its a great addition to my tank, allthough this probly doesnt help you at all so im going outside to play in traffic.


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## LordMaximo (Aug 31, 2007)

Mad78 said:


> i took a cool peice of wood from my neighbors yard, boiled the sucker for 4 hours straight changing the water often and scrubbing as i went along, never had a problem with it, no water color changes, ph is normal, and its a great addition to my tank, allthough this probly doesnt help you at all so im going outside to play in traffic.


There are certain types of wood that are great for tanks. The greener the wood, meaning just recently dried out and not somethinf on the ten year plan, will still have a solid feel. It takes a minimum of two to three seasons to actually have a piece of wood dried. 
Then there are other types that will kill everything in the tank. Certain wood are not friendly to water pools, they leach out a poison and tant the pond.
Be carefull in what you find on the ground to place in your tank.

Maximo


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## jrh (Sep 9, 2007)

bpmox said:


> I've never bought driftwood from Florida Driftwood, but I did order some plants last year and they arrived in the worst condition of any plants I've ever recieved through the mail, even the java moss was dead. I won't get into it but I wanted to throw a word of caution out there about this particular vendor, if you search around you'll find many complaints about their practices.


I was going to order some wood from them, but never got a response to emails or voicemails, so I'd also recommend caution unless you enjoy dealing with a non-communicative vendor.


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## Rod Hay (Feb 11, 2006)

Even though you may not do plenty of H2O changes on your low tech tank; you can still throw some carbon into your filter, just for a week or two. Carbon in the filter will help remove the tannins. ....been there, done that.

I've also allowed driftwood to sit in an extra 35g Rubbermaid tub for months before actually getting around to re-doing an aquascape. Oh, wait, I still have some soaking.


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## kana (Oct 23, 2007)

I bought some Mopani wood that was way too big to fit in a pan on my stove. What I did was put the wood in a large cooler(w/drain plug) in the bathtub and every morning I drained the cooler and refilled it with hot water. I did this for almost two months and it removed a lot of the tannin. I do weekly water changes and the water isn't too brown.


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## wakemenow (Aug 3, 2007)

*My take on it*

I tried a piece of mopani wood in my tank and finally had to remove it recently due to continuously leaching tannins over a period of weeks. I soaked it for over a week in a bucket outside with regular water changes. This stuff turned out to be more of a pain than it's worth.

The driftwood that is already water-logged and sold right out of the tank at the LFS intrigues me. That may be what I go with next. It's a very dark wood, single-toned, preferred by most catfish.


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## esteroali (Oct 24, 2007)

*El Nat and driftwood*

I set this up about a month ago.Driftwood was from the river in my back yard. Soaked it is the tub for a day or two...should have done longer...Still leeches but doesn't bother me.


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## bastalker (Dec 8, 2004)

The driftwood I have in my tank
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/low-tech-forum/55211-my-low-tech-no-nuthin-75g.html comes from here.

http://www.jehmco.com/html/driftwood.html

No tannins and sinks right away. Just put it where ya want it. :wink: 

tc
Mark


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## jaidexl (Sep 18, 2006)

Sometimes you don't get tannins. I've had two different pieces (don't know what type) that didn't leach. One came from the LFS and another from an old lady, both dry and floated forever. But, I might be blind to the color 'Tea'.


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