# Dragon stone



## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

By "cured", do you mean soaked (or boiled) to expel tannins?
You can do that with the Malaysian driftwood. All of them Malaysian driftwood I have gotten though, has had very minimal tannins. I just rinse mine and place it in the tank, any minimal tannins that do leech out, are removed with the upcoming water changes. Still a nice idea to soak though if it happens to not float until it's water logged.

Dragon (Ohko) stone is supposed to be inert, meaning it should not effect water chemistry at all. However, all those crevices can potentially have some other minerals lying within the crevices so a cleaning/rinsing can be recommended. Brushing can help get deeper into the crevices, but do be gentle though, as dragon stone is fairly fragile. If you wanted to be safe, after cleaning (or before), you can leave it in a bucket of water and test the water to see if the water chemistry happened to change (if it matters for your needs). Boiling rocks is not recommended (horror stories have been told of rocks exploding).


----------



## jchurgai (May 9, 2016)

Thano you so much!


----------



## alcimedes (Dec 7, 2014)

Ha, one thing to note about the Malaysian drift wood. The first week or so you put it in the tank, it will start to grow a disgusting, mostly clear slime layer. This is normal and will go away in a week or two. Some fish will eat it, but not most. It's harmless though either way.


----------



## Mikeygmzmg (Mar 19, 2015)

alcimedes said:


> Ha, one thing to note about the Malaysian drift wood. The first week or so you put it in the tank, it will start to grow a disgusting, mostly clear slime layer. This is normal and will go away in a week or two. Some fish will eat it, but not most. It's harmless though either way.


Otocinclus love the taste of the slime! 2 or 3 should do the job.


----------



## Plantednoob7 (Feb 4, 2016)

I had a real large piece of Malaysian drift wood that I couldn't boil well. My water was very yellow and even water changes didn't help. I put some purigen in my filter and within 24 hours water was crystal clear


----------



## WaterLife (Jul 1, 2015)

If the piece is too large, you can pour boiling water on it. It's the heat that pulls out the tannins. You could put the piece in a unstocked tank and turn a aquarium heater to max temps to leach out the tannins quicker. But yes, activated carbon/charcoal or purigen can adsorb the tannins.


----------

