# Mopani Wood good or bad...



## Guest (Feb 1, 2010)

I have some Mopani wood that I would like to put in my tank, any opinions?


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

Go for it. Mopani can leach tannins for a few months after you submerge it (meaning it will turn your water yellowish for a while), but that should be your only problem. It normally sinks right away, so you don't have to worry about soaking it beforehand.


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## KShoes (Sep 29, 2009)

I have mopani dw and it is leaching tannins. Mine also didn't sink initially. I left it submerged for 2 days and now it sinks. I like how it bends like a branch as opposed to the manzanita dw I have; basically just a chunk of wood. Make sure to boil it, mine has white mold on it.


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## maxthedog123 (Jul 23, 2007)

Looks excellent in a tank! You can boil it or soak it in very hot water before putting it into the tank to get some of the tannins out. In my experience, even if you boil it you may get the "white mold" on it. It's just a temporary thing at the beginning.


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## Guest (Feb 1, 2010)

thanks! So, do I have to clean the mold off? Planning on attaching plants to it if I use it.


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## legomaniac89 (Mar 16, 2008)

The fungus should come right off. You can siphon it out when you do a water change, if you want


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## CLASSIC (Feb 25, 2009)

I used to use mopani all the time years ago. Never had a problem with it, also some pieces have many different color tones which looks great as long as it stays clean. Only reason i stopped using it was that i always ran out of room for plants and ended up taking it out to make room lol. Great stuff but a bit pricey as it tends to be very dense causing smaller pieces to weigh more raising the price. 

Sorry to stray from the Mopani but i just wanted to chime in about the white mold. I like many many in this hobby have came across this mold numerous times (never spread or caused a problem in any of my tanks), but recently i re-used a piece of DW i had previously in another tank and had been dry for a while, the wood had never had any issue with the white mold until i reused it. I wonder if it has something to do with rotting substances like wood, plants or fish food that had been wet before?


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## KShoes (Sep 29, 2009)

Is this mold harmful to shrimp and fish??


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 4, 2008)

KShoes said:


> Is this mold harmful to shrimp and fish??


It is not.


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## Delslo (Feb 5, 2010)

Does the mold look like little white dots? I just started seeing it on all of my driftwood, that I purchased at different times? I also just put some zebra nerites in, I read it could be their eggs? Does this make sense to anyone?


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 4, 2008)

Delslo said:


> Does the mold look like little white dots? I just started seeing it on all of my driftwood, that I purchased at different times? I also just put some zebra nerites in, I read it could be their eggs? Does this make sense to anyone?


No, the mold will look just like mold would (fuzzy growth).

If they are visible white dots, I would suspect them to be snail eggs (doe snot necessarily have to be the Zebra Nerites').


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## Delslo (Feb 5, 2010)

Darkblade48 said:


> No, the mold will look just like mold would (fuzzy growth).
> 
> If they are visible white dots, I would suspect them to be snail eggs (doe snot necessarily have to be the Zebra Nerites').


 All I have for snails in the tank are Zebra Nerites


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## Darkblade48 (Jan 4, 2008)

It may be Nerite eggs, as they appear as singlets, and not as clusters.

However, I believe they cannot be hatched in freshwater...


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