African Driftwood

[Fishstix]

I saw this at my LFS and i was thinking of adding it to my tank. Is this good for a freshwater tank? Does it sink well and should i soak it first?

 

[Max Action]

Is it rootwood, all gnarled and cool looking?

If so, yeah, it sinks easily and it's great looking in a tank.

BUT ...

Soak and boil it a whole bunch first, especially if you don't want it to (harmlessly) discolor your water slightly.

Also, if you use more than a small piece, you'll want to regularly check your ph over the coming months to be sure the tannins leaching out don't cause a major drop.

 

[ProGolferCL6]

ya the pH should drop a little...but the wood i believe is a good water buffer

 

[Aquascaper]

Take a look at the thread entitled:

Decorations?
Adding drift wood to the tank

It has some info & advice on this subject

 

[Teelie]

FYI, most of the driftwood you see is called Mopani and is African in origin.

 

[CFC]

most of the driftwood you see is called Mopani and is African in origin

Not entirely true, here in England at least a large ammount of the wood sold for aquarium use is of Malaysian origin and not all African wood is mopani a large ammount of the dark coloured west African wood is imported, i have a huge ammount of wood in my tanks (roughly about 60 kilos in total) and not one piece is mopani wood. I generally advise avoiding mopani since it cannot be digested by fish like panaques which require wood in their diet and it releases a lot more tannins than Malaysian and west African bog/drift wood, mopani can be identified by its two tone light and dark colouration where as malaysian and W.African wood will be a uniform dark brown.

 

[nene]

My african driftwood always gets like a white slime on it at first. My malaysian driftwood has never done this. The white stuff is apparently harmless and it disappears eventually. And yes, it usually sinks very easily.

 

[noelberg]

man, if mopani leaches more than Malaysian driftwood, then that's a lot! i enjoyed my malaysian driftwood, but it made the water VERY yellow and broke down and made the substrate extremely dirty. good news was it sank like a rock and the fish enjoyed it.