# Soaking Mopani Wood



## clockworkmonkey (May 7, 2012)

So I've been soaking a new piece of mopani wood in a bucket full of conditioned water all day and no tannins have leached out. The piece is still floating at the top. Do I need to weigh it down with something? If so, what would be a good inert substance I could weigh it down with? I don't have any rocks available; I could go buy some at the shop but I'd rather not spend the money when I'm not going to have room for it in my new 2 gallon. I think that the wood is going to take up most of the space, if it even fits at all.


----------



## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

I boil mine.

v3


----------



## clockworkmonkey (May 7, 2012)

And that gets the tannins out? How long should I boil it for?


----------



## Melted (Nov 22, 2013)

You can just keep emptying and refilling the pot until the water you dump out is no longer discoloured. theres no set amount as every piece is different.


----------



## DogFish (Jul 16, 2011)

Your not even close until it sinks. :smile:

The thicker the pc the longer it takes. I needed 3 wks on some pcs that are 4" thick. No need for treated soak water. Let it sit until the water turns yellow then dump the water and repeat.

Initially you might change water daily, then every 3 days, then maybe a week.

The good thing is Mopane lasts a long time.


----------



## Italionstallion888 (Jun 29, 2013)

I have done this method with 7 decent sized mopani.

Boil in a dutch over/large pot for 2 hours (adding water as the water line drops)

remove and place in a bucket with cold water for 2 hours

boil again for 2 hours

remove and place in a bucket with cold water for 2 hours

do this until the water when boiling is no longer dark tea, if I can see the bottom of the pot it's ready to go. Let it sit out over night and dry. Your water in the tank will get a bit tea colored, but just put it in a few days before a water change.


----------



## clockworkmonkey (May 7, 2012)

Thanks, everyone. I'll try boiling it.


----------



## lochaber (Jan 23, 2012)

ditto on the bit about not needing treated water. Any chlorine present is going to be exhausted long before the water looks discolored.

As to boiling, I think it's best if you let it cool in the pot, but I don't think it will make much of a difference.. You ever take a chem class where you had to use 'boiling chips' or stick a toothpick in a flask when you were heating it? The whole point of that was to stick something air-filled and porous in, so that when it was heated the air pockets would expand out of the stone/wood, and serve as seed bubbles for the boiling water. Kept the bubble formation nice and controlled, and prevented those big bubbles that could 'burp' out a bunch of the liquid, or even your test tube or something. However, once you stopped boiling that particular bit of water, you had to put in a new stick/chip if you wanted to start boiling again, this is because as it cooled, the air pockets contracted, drawing water into the pores of the chip/stick, and it wouldn't work until it was dried out again. Similar bit with boiling driftwood - the heat forces the air out of the pores, and when it's cooled, the water is drawn back into it.
Plus it gets the tannins to leach quite a bit quicker.

If you know how you want to position the wood, bolting it onto a piece of slate is a pretty effective method. I'm pretty fond of this method, it gets the wood to sink from the beginning, and it allows you to position it in almost any position and have it be really stable (upright, at an angle, leaning, whatever). Slate tiles are fairly inexpensive in the flooring section of Home Depot/Lowe's, and they are really easy to drill with a masonry bit.


----------

