Driftwood tannins Dilemma

[Simply Fin]

I just received hardscape today and instructions came with it that really had me in a quandary. You see, if I follow the instructions in preparing the driftwood for the aquarium it will rid all the tannins from the wood or at least that is what the company is stating. But the problem is that I want Phoenix Rasboras to live in the tank and from what I've read they like a little tannin in the water. But I'm not sure how I would go about treating the driftwood and leaving a little tannin in the wood. Is this making sense to you? I've enclose photo so you can see the instructions and consider what I might do. Thank you.

Edited September 18, 2022 by Simply Fin

[Anjum]

So 2 things: boil to remove tannins and/or boil to help it sink. If you want to keep the tannins, don't need to boil. It might sink right away on its own. But if it doesn't, you can just let it float until it soaks up enough water to sink. But if you want it to happen faster, you can boil it. You can save that tannin-rich water too to add back to the tank if you want more tannins. 

ETA: I've never boiled it, just a quick rinse to get rid of dust & put it in the tank. 

Edited September 18, 2022 by Anjum

[Odd Duck]

Or you can boil to reduce but not eliminate tannins for less in your tank if you don’t want it too dark.  Not boil at all and fasten it down to a rock or something similarly heavy enough to keep it where you want it.  Let those tannins loose to run about your tank.  😃  I’ve only boiled very small pieces of wood that I was going to use to attach epiphytes and I wanted the wood to sink and hold down the plants. I usually at least soak them a while in a bucket or barrel (depending on size) so they are over the worst of any biofilm if I didn’t want the biofilm feeding a bunch of algae.  Simple soaking can be enough for some pieces.  Yours looks like mopani which tends to sink fairly well but can produce a lot of tannins, and may or may not need soaking to sink.

[nabokovfan87]

So the wood in question is mopani. 

A.  Boil it for the sake of sanitization.  DO NOT use a kitchen pot.  I have my own fish pot because the last piece of mopani I cooked decided to seep some goop all over the pot.  It took a while for it to get clean, but not sure if that's safe for spaghetti anymore.

B.  You can then soak it for any desired length of time. Typical is 3-5 days minimum.  You can go longer. 

C.  Add it to the tank.

You WILL ALWAYS have some tannins in the tank because it is mopani and it's the most wonderfully dense and tannin-ed wood you can get besides something like malaysian driftwood.  This stuff is like tea bags.  Even with weekly 50% WCs my tank has tannins and it's not something I expect to ever go away..... this is 4-5 years after the wood was first purchased.  For the first few years, you're going to have tannins pretty heavily and you control that color by how often and what volume of water is changed.

[OutBout]

On 9/17/2022 at 9:45 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

So the wood in question is mopani. 

A.  Boil it for the sake of sanitization.  DO NOT use a kitchen pot.  I have my own fish pot because the last piece of mopani I cooked decided to seep some goop all over the pot.  It took a while for it to get clean, but not sure if that's safe for spaghetti anymore.

B.  You can then soak it for any desired length of time. Typical is 3-5 days minimum.  You can go longer. 

C.  Add it to the tank.

You WILL ALWAYS have some tannins in the tank because it is mopani and it's the most wonderfully dense and tannin-ed wood you can get besides something like malaysian driftwood.  This stuff is like tea bags.  Even with weekly 50% WCs my tank has tannins and it's not something I expect to ever go away..... this is 4-5 years after the wood was first purchased.  For the first few years, you're going to have tannins pretty heavily and you control that color by how often and what volume of water is changed.

Good advice. Mopani doesn't really stop leaching tannins, just slows down over time. I have noticed that mopani that's only composed of the dark brown wood will leach much less from the start. Personally I've never boiled mopani and have always enjoyed the black water, though the pH can drop a bit.

[TOtrees]

On 9/18/2022 at 12:21 AM, Odd Duck said:

I usually at least soak them a while in a bucket or barrel (depending on size) so they are over the worst of any biofilm if I didn’t want the biofilm feeding a bunch of algae.

This. 
Pre-soaking in a separate container lets you get some water into the wood to reduce buoyancy before you put it in your main tank. During that soaking time yes it will release tannins, but there will still be plenty to release after it goes into your main tank. 

During the presoak, you also don’t need to change out water from the temporary container as much as you might need to if you were to add it directly to the main tank.

[Simply Fin]

I want to thank all of you for responding to this new fin in the swim question. There is so much to learn about aquarium life. I'll be so glad to just get my aquarium up and running and stocked with my plants and fish. It's a long process but everyone here has made this little journey easier.

Sincerely,

Simply Fin

[lefty o]

soak it in a bucket for a few days if you want, not really needed with mopani. mopani will generally sink on its own right away, but will heavily stain tank water. a few days soak will get some of the color out, but it will still leach color/tannins for a long time. if you put it in the tank, and it gets the water darker than you like you just add in another water change once in a while to help with that.

[Guppysnail]

Is that mopani?  If so it should just sink. all mine always did. Rinse it with hot water and it will be fine. Boiling is not needed. 
 

Another method I use is to drill a hole where I can’t see it to wrap a plant weight roll through to sink. Or just wrap plant weight around.  Some light large pieces you may need several rolls. 
 

Here is a tank with 2 large pieces of spider wood just rinsed and plant weight roll hidden under substrate. The spider wood still won’t sink without the weight. I’m not patient enough to wait and I don’t have a vat to boil pieces that large. 
 

 

Edited September 18, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Jenja]

I'm a no boil person when it comes to driftwood. I do however do multiple hot water soaks - hot as my tap produces then soak 3-12 hours (sometimes it's a replace in 3 hours when the water temperature cools, other times it's overnight, there's no hard and fast rules), repeat until the wood sinks and the tannins are quite weak looking in my bucket. A white bucket is ideal for soaks if you want to see tannin levels.

Good news for your rasboras, that's mopani you have, doesn't matter how much you boil or soak, that baby is gonna release tannins from now until forever.

[lefty o]

On 9/18/2022 at 5:56 PM, Jenja said:

I'm a no boil person when it comes to driftwood. I do however do multiple hot water soaks - hot as my tap produces then soak 3-12 hours (sometimes it's a replace in 3 hours when the water temperature cools, other times it's overnight, there's no hard and fast rules), repeat until the wood sinks and the tannins are quite weak looking in my bucket. A white bucket is ideal for soaks if you want to see tannin levels.

Good news for your rasboras, that's mopani you have, doesn't matter how much you boil or soak, that baby is gonna release tannins from now until forever.

im right there with you. i typically use a 5 gallon bucket and just fill it with hot water out of the tap. do that a few times over night, and after that im out of patience, and in the tank it goes.😎

[Simply Fin]

Well, I'm certainly learning. I boiled for one hour, rinsed, boiled for 2 hours, rinsed, soaked overnight. Boiled again, rinsed, same over again. Then I soaked overnight again. Soaked in warm water and then it looked pretty good. But I see by the looks of the aquarium I'll be doing regular water changes to keep the tannins down. But that's ok. Yes, the Rasboras will love it! I'll take a picture soon so you can see the progress...if you want a look at a beginner's nano tank. I can see I've already made some landscape mistakes but I'll manage with it for now. Thank you again for everyone's kind help.  

[nabokovfan87]

Looking forward to it.  The fish will definitely enjoy it! 🙂

[Guppysnail]

On 9/22/2022 at 12:39 AM, Simply Fin said:

Well, I'm certainly learning. I boiled for one hour, rinsed, boiled for 2 hours, rinsed, soaked overnight. Boiled again, rinsed, same over again. Then I soaked overnight again. Soaked in warm water and then it looked pretty good. But I see by the looks of the aquarium I'll be doing regular water changes to keep the tannins down. But that's ok. Yes, the Rasboras will love it! I'll take a picture soon so you can see the progress...if you want a look at a beginner's nano tank. I can see I've already made some landscape mistakes but I'll manage with it for now. Thank you again for everyone's kind help.  

Of course we want to see. We love tank pictures. Some seachem purigen in your filter will help remove tannins and keep them manageable. My understanding of carbon is it does remove some needed minerals so I don’t recommend carbon. 
Some tanks I like tannins others I don’t but I love mopani. Unfortunately mopani is about the highest tannin output wood I know of. If it stops releasing tannins but I let it dry out between uses it releases a whole new set of tannins. Beauty always has a price 🤣

Edited September 22, 2022 by Guppysnail

[rockfisher]

I like to use the carbon. I fell I still get some benifits and and I can control the color very easy. I put some carbon in a media bag an the in the filter. In canister, HOB, I have filled the sponge filter with carbon up to the air stone but it is not enough to clear water. I have several tanks and like to have a tea color in some tanks. I can’t remember ever having an issue with disease in a blackwater/tea tank. I like the health benefits are great. I understand it’s not for everyone but you could try it.