Ohad Posted January 18, 2023 Share Posted January 18, 2023 (edited) Hi there! I pressed buy too fast (damn Amazon ) on the #1 best-seller https://a.co/d/cXiMf8r Driftwood It's not in the tank yet. I understand that I need to boil it for hours and then soak it for about a week if I don't want tanin in the water. Does anyone have experience with this wood? Is it worth it? I 100% don't want any brown water in my tank. It was only $26, so I have no problem giving it to someone on "buy nothing" and learning my lesson What is the least messy wood you guys can recommend for a planted tank? Thank you all, Edited January 19, 2023 by Ohad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tanked Posted January 18, 2023 Share Posted January 18, 2023 I prefer rocks over wood, so I can't answer your question. But it brought up a question that has bugged me for years. I have never seen red driftwood in the wild. Why is aquarium/driftwood always red or reddish brown? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohad Posted January 18, 2023 Author Share Posted January 18, 2023 Agree Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janoš Bećar Pecaroš Posted January 18, 2023 Share Posted January 18, 2023 Any real wood will color the water to some degree. Maple and beach would color the water less than oak or cypress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohad Posted January 18, 2023 Author Share Posted January 18, 2023 On 1/18/2023 at 10:44 AM, Tanked said: I prefer rocks over wood, so I can't answer your question. But it brought up a question that has bugged me for years. I have never seen red driftwood in the wild. Why is aquarium/driftwood always red or reddish brown? I assume that most of these driftwood are roots. And the idea is to simulate tree roots on a river floor. Of course, most people want just an idea of nature in their home without the mess and the mud, haha. The plants need to be super green and the water transparent like tap water. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paigee Posted January 18, 2023 Share Posted January 18, 2023 Lmao I actually JUST bought this also for my tank. Same brand and all. I will say, boil it a couple times probably because mine is still tinting the water brown. Nbd, I threw some Purigen in the filter to clear it up. I did like the pieces I got though. Lots of different shapes and sizes and the quality seemed good to me. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohad Posted January 18, 2023 Author Share Posted January 18, 2023 (edited) On 1/18/2023 at 5:14 PM, Pepere said: Brown stained water need not be permanent. It can be water changed out, or you can use Purigen or activated carbon to remove it. It may take a month or two to stop leaching tannins in to the water. long and short of it, I wouldnt give up on driftwood because of it… I recognize that tannins are actually good for the fish, but I a not enamored with the aesthetic either… Ok, I boiled it now for an hour and got very dark brown water out of it. Will now try to soak it in a tab for a week with daily water change. Let's hope that it will work as I love the shapes I got. Will look amazing with plants Edited January 18, 2023 by Ohad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The endler guy Posted January 18, 2023 Share Posted January 18, 2023 Speaking for my self but I LOVE wood! Especially the tannins, boiling it and changing water is probably the best coarse of action 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wes L. Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 One thing that really helps is hot water, as you have seen after your 1 hour of boiling the wood. Don't be afraid to repeat the boiling process a couple of times. When you do soak your wood for a week, fill your container up with hot water from the tap. You'll notice way more tanins being released with hot water. Do that for a week or so, and then once the wood is in your tank water, which is dramatically cooler than hot tap water, the tanin release is really slow. Just for kicks, fill up your container with hot tap water for a couple of days, and look how brown the water is the next day. Then one day fill the container up with cool water and watch how much of a difference there is in the color of water. The cool water will be way less tinted. You can never completely remove all the tanins from the wood, but hot water soaks really help speed the process up. I boil my wood several times, then soak the wood for about a week using hot water with daily changes, then after that I switch to just cold tap water and observe daily the color of the water. Once I don't see any discoloration of the water, or very little, the wood is ready for my tank. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted January 21, 2023 Share Posted January 21, 2023 (edited) On 1/18/2023 at 2:14 PM, Pepere said: Brown stained water need not be permanent. It can be water changed out, or you can use Purigen or activated carbon to remove it. It may take a month or two to stop leaching tannins in to the water. long and short of it, I wouldnt give up on driftwood because of it… I recognize that tannins are actually good for the fish, but I a not enamored with the aesthetic either… If you change water weekly, you'll basically never have a real issue with tannins in the water. If you DO have an issue with tannins, you just need to give it time to leech out and then slow down the release of those tannins. This can be done in a bucket or in the tank. Warmer water = you leech more tannins out than a piece of wood soaking in cold water in a bucket somewhere. The wood you have is very likely some form of malaysian driftwood, ghost wood, or pacific driftwood. All of those are fine and will work well for your aquarium. As long as they look nice, that's all you really need. Shrimp, plecos, otos, clown plecos, and a lot of fish will appreciate the aufwuchs and films that the wood produces. Don't think of this as a failed impulse buy, think of it as you're touching a toe into blackwater and a tank with botanicals in the water. Not a bad thing at all, provides benefit with the humic acid in the water. From brightwell's website, but a good breakdown of what is happening. Quote Humic substances are natural derivatives of organic materials found in soils and, more importantly (for aquarium hobbyists), in many forested streams and rivers. They are collectively comprised of humic and fulvic acids, which are the product of the natural decomposition of proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, and lignins of plant and/or animal origin. A characteristic of humic substances is their deep brown color, which is responsible for the color of soil. Soluble humic substances increase the bioavailability of multivalent cations (many of which are important nutrients for plants) to plants considerably by forming temporary bonds with these ions and making their uptake by plants more direct; this increases the effectiveness that water care products containing these ions will have in planted aquaria. Blackwater rivers are so-called because of the coloration of the water, which ranges from light- to dark-brown (as a result of the presence of humic substances), but is transparent. There are many important blackwater rivers in the Amazon and Orinoco River drainages, as well as throughout forested regions of Southeast Asia, all origins of many families of important aquarium fishes. Blackwater biotope aquaria are therefore desirable when attempting to maintain these fishes. Edited January 21, 2023 by nabokovfan87 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohad Posted January 22, 2023 Author Share Posted January 22, 2023 Thank you all, love this forum! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlanAlves Posted February 25, 2023 Share Posted February 25, 2023 (edited) On 1/18/2023 at 7:59 PM, Ohad said: Hi there! I pressed buy too fast (damn Amazon ) on the #1 best-seller https://a.co/d/cXiMf8r Driftwood It's not in the tank yet. I understand that I need to boil it for hours and then soak it for about a week if I don't want tanin in the water. Does anyone have experience with this wood? Is it worth it? I 100% don't want any brown water in my tank. It was only $26, so I have no problem giving it to someone on "buy nothing" and learning my lesson What is the least messy wood you guys can recommend for a planted tank? Thank you all, Can you share pictures of tank :) Looking for a trustworthy and reliable online casino to play your favorite casino games and win real money? Look no further than https://casinosanalyzer.com/online-casinos/new-casinos your ultimate destination for finding the brand new online casinos on the market today. Can you share pictures of tank :) Edit: Still waiting.... Edited February 28, 2023 by AlanAlves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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