Question About Bogwood

[PrairieSunflower]

How do you know when your bogwood is breaking down?
 
I get soooo much of these brown bits when I vacuum my gravel.  I do not have enough fish to be making this amount of debris in just one week and am certainly not over feeding them to this level.  So I've been wondering if this is somehow my bogwood breaking down.
 
I looked at my bogwood and touched it... it is still very firm, nothing appears loose or missing...and I've had this piece of wood for about a year or slightly longer.

 

[the_lock_man]

What fish have you got PS?

 

[Stu4648]

I have quite a lot of bogwood in both my tanks but have never noticed any of it fragmenting. There are some plecos and panaques that would digest a certain amount of wood through scraping the microflora etc... but I am not sure if any of this would lead to much debris being created. Assuming you do not have any of these fish in your tank though, as they are fairly uncommon (I think), I cannot imagine what might be causing it to another wise solid piece of wood. If you can remove a piece the next time you vacuum your substrate it may help identify if it actually is the bogwood or not.

 

[Essjay]

Do you still have the nerite snail? I find loads of tiny black bits under all my bogwood. I've always assumed the nerites rasp the wood and the bits are either what they scrape off or, since the bits are all the same size and shape, they are what wood looks like after it's been through a snail's digestive system.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

What fish have you got PS?

 
I have two honey gourami, 11 norman's lampeyes, some amanos (8 I think), and assassin snails.
 

Do you still have the nerite snail? I find loads of tiny black bits under all my bogwood. I've always assumed the nerites rasp the wood and the bits are either what they scrape off or, since the bits are all the same size and shape, they are what wood looks like after it's been through a snail's digestive system.

 
My nerrite snail is in a different tank, so not the guilty culprit.

I have quite a lot of bogwood in both my tanks but have never noticed any of it fragmenting. There are some plecos and panaques that would digest a certain amount of wood through scraping the microflora etc... but I am not sure if any of this would lead to much debris being created. Assuming you do not have any of these fish in your tank though, as they are fairly uncommon (I think), I cannot imagine what might be causing it to another wise solid piece of wood. If you can remove a piece the next time you vacuum your substrate it may help identify if it actually is the bogwood or not.

It isn't a piece.... it is many many many bits and doesn't look the same as fish waste.  Maybe I need to take a picture of my waste bucket the next time I do a tank cleaning.  These bits aren't spread around the gravel in the entire tank, they seem to be mostly in the area around my bogwood and in between and towards the large rock next to it.

 

[Stu4648]

 

What fish have you got PS?

 
I have two honey gourami, 11 norman's lampeyes, some amanos (8 I think), and assassin snails.
 

Do you still have the nerite snail? I find loads of tiny black bits under all my bogwood. I've always assumed the nerites rasp the wood and the bits are either what they scrape off or, since the bits are all the same size and shape, they are what wood looks like after it's been through a snail's digestive system.

 
My nerrite snail is in a different tank, so not the guilty culprit.

I have quite a lot of bogwood in both my tanks but have never noticed any of it fragmenting. There are some plecos and panaques that would digest a certain amount of wood through scraping the microflora etc... but I am not sure if any of this would lead to much debris being created. Assuming you do not have any of these fish in your tank though, as they are fairly uncommon (I think), I cannot imagine what might be causing it to another wise solid piece of wood. If you can remove a piece the next time you vacuum your substrate it may help identify if it actually is the bogwood or not.

It isn't a piece.... it is many many many bits and doesn't look the same as fish waste.  Maybe I need to take a picture of my waste bucket the next time I do a tank cleaning.  These bits aren't spread around the gravel in the entire tank, they seem to be mostly in the area around my bogwood and in between and towards the large rock next to it.
 

I actually had a closer look at my tank and there are a few pieces of bogwood debris, in my case it is probably my bristlenose plec clambering all over it that is knocking small pieces off. Although, occasionally my Red Tail Black Shark will flash / rub against objects, this too may be knocking fragments off. I thought she was doing it because she may have had an external parasite but noticed she was actually doing it to kick up food particles that had become lodged. When you are feeding your fish do you notice some of it accumulating on the bogwood? It could be your fish are doing something similar to make the food re-accessible.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

No, the food seems to get eaten up by the fish and the rest grabbed by shrimp and last bits by snails.  My food is a lighter color and this debris is a very dark brown.

 

[Alasse]

Do you have any pleco type in there?

 

[gh74]

Take it out give it a blast with a pressure washer then give it a boil for about 15-30 minutes,i took all the bogwood out of my main tank coz it was releasing a lot of tanins and had all them wee wood particals,i have them soaking in a storage box then i'll powerhose it and boil it and add it to my other tank which has bogwood in it...why dont you chane your wood to redmoor or something along that line,thats what i have in my main tank and 1 piece of mopani,if you change to redmoor give it a wash with a pressure washer,thats what i did the other day and the wood looks better now

 

[PrairieSunflower]

Do you have any pleco type in there?

No, just the small fish, snails and amanos.

 

[DreamertK]

I have ramshorn snails and they're all over the wood (and shrimps hiding in the wood). I've also seen small pieces of the wood in the tank, though this wood has been in the tank a year at least.
 
How long has your wood been in there?
 
It could just be luck of the draw with the piece you picked, some last for decades and some last for a year or two.

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I've had this piece a year or just slightly over a year.  The weird thing is it doesn't feel like it is breaking down... it is very solid.

 

[DreamertK]

Same. You could just leave it until it becomes soft or you dont want to deal with those little bits of wood anymore. I've heard of people taking the wood out and power washing it (with just water) to get any loose bits off of it and then putting it back in.