Drift wood question

[Stephan1973]

So I am looking at rescaping one of my tanks. And I want to add a large piece of driftwood. I was given some wood that I used in a 20g and it affected my prater parameters. I am looking for a wood that will not affect my water parameters. 

[AllFishNoBrakes]

Spider wood is inert and will not affect your water parameters. I also really enjoy the look. Being inert is the bonus to me 

[Lennie]

Large wood pieces are harder to boil and soak, but it helps to get rid of very good amount of tannins at the beginning.

after that, maybe your kh is a bit low? Do you have a chance to test your kh? In my high kh tanks, even with lots of driftwood, aquasoil, alder cones and catappa leaf, the ph gets *tickled*. I barely read any difference on the parameters. The lower your kh is, the more impact these type of stuff have on your ph

[The endler guy]

Any wood will leach tannins just do water changes if you don’t like the look, unless it is a huge peace in a small tank and never do water changes then maybe the water parameters may be an issue for some fish

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/9/2023 at 8:52 PM, Stephan1973 said:

I am looking for a wood that will not affect my water parameters. 

I've never had an issue with wood affecting water parameters. Be it manzanita, ghostwood, mopani, etc.

We just, or maybe I just don't, use the sheer amount of wood that causes issues. It would take a very large amount.

When you say the piece you used previously affected water parameters I assume the change was with your KH, affecting your PH. This may or may not be a symptom of the setup, not necessarily of the wood being there. That change may also be beneficial to the fish as opposed to causing any sort of issues.  What specifically did you see change with regards to the tank when adding wood? We're there any fish showing issues with PH levels?

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/ph-gh-kh

The wood is a type of organic material that breaks down over time. Those tannins do reduce over time. The impact that you see does reduce over time if you are using a good hard wood. If you have a softer wood, it basically just turns to mush and causes so much mulm and waste that it just clogs filtration and other things. That definitely would be a negative impact on the system.

My suggestion would be to look for a piece of Malaysian or pacific driftwood that you like. I believe zoo med and mopani do see them, but it should be pretty common as a general hardscape item.

 

[Stephan1973]

Yes my drift wood with the stratum substrate was killing my KH and ph. my other tanks don’t have this problem so I really think it’s the wood

 

thank you all for your input.  

[nabokovfan87]

On 6/10/2023 at 12:33 PM, Stephan1973 said:

Yes my drift wood with the stratum substrate was killing my KH and ph. my other tanks don’t have this problem so I really think it’s the wood

This video discusses the impact and operation of active substrate.  The impact of that on your water.  Wood adds organics to the water, which does consume some KH.  I have wood in every single one of my tanks and I really don't plan to run a tank without it. 
 

What is the KH you're seeing via testing and what sort of stress issues with the tank were you seeing?

Ultimately, water changes are your friend here to get the PH/KH stable.

[BarbaraJohnson]

On 6/10/2023 at 8:29 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I've never had an issue with wood affecting water parameters. Be it manzanita, ghostwood, mopani, etc.

We just, or maybe I just don't, use the sheer amount of wood that causes issues. It would take a very large amount.

When you say the piece you used previously affected water parameters I assume the change was with your KH, affecting your PH. This may or may not be a symptom of the setup, not necessarily of the wood being there. That change may also be beneficial to the fish as opposed to causing any sort of issues.  What specifically did you see change with regards to the tank when adding wood? We're there any fish showing issues with PH levels?

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/ph-gh-kh

The wood is a type of organic material that breaks down over time. Those tannins do reduce over time. The impact that you see does reduce over time if you are using a good hard wood. If you have a softer wood, it basically just turns to mush and causes so much mulm and waste that it just clogs filtration and other things. That definitely would be a negative impact on the system.

My suggestion would be to look for a piece of Malaysian or pacific driftwood that you like. I believe zoo med and mopani do see them, but it should be pretty common as a general hardscape item.

 

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate you 🙂