Mopani driftwood root?

[aquaholic]

I saw some nice huge pieces in a local lfs, was wondering if its any good?

[Bk828]

is good just will release ALOT of tannins and make your water tea color

[aquaholic]

I am looking for something with less tea color effect:) What about the cholla's mexican wood? I saw people sell it as driftwood. Yet our local crafts store sells nice pieces for like $5

[DAVIDFBT]

Basically all wood will release that color. But you can make it put out a lot less by boiling it first and then using carbon in your filter. Some people even like it for a more natural look.

[aquaholic]

I aggree but I have 5 big peices that give off a nice tea color already and if I add more and more tea color I wont see much in my tank :( :)

[DAVIDFBT]

Water changes always reduces the amount of tannins in the water. Up the changes and you shouldn't be seeing that deep brown color in your water. :)

[aquaholic]

I am trying to stay with the fertz system where I do a 50% once a week.

[lovemybarbs]

Mopani will sink really well. I like it. It will only release the tannins for a little while. Soak it first, change the water, soak it again. When it slows down, put it in the tank.

[J double R]

you have few choices. up your water changes, prep the wood by boiling so most of the tannins are out, or deal with the tannins.

sounds like youve got some boiling ahead of you.

[prolude006]

Mopani works well and it will leach tannins no more than any other wood. use some activated carbon if you dont like how it looks. It will clear it and then remove the carbon. Even a dark tannin wouldnt bother me and it will clear on its own anyway so id leave it alone just for the sake of not doing more work. Boiling would be a pain and it would smell like wood in the house. Ive done both......leave it alone!!!!

[Riiz]

In my largest tank I have mopani, but it still colors the water very lightly even at 7months+. I see the tannins as a reminder to change the water, hehe. But supposedly Manzanita(sp) wood supposedly doesnt leech as bad from the start, but I dont know personally.

But driftwood, I personally like to boil or soak for atleast a month, and if its too large for the stovetop, a dishwasher without soap helps too, if it fits.

[Cory Keeper]

I like the tannins personally, my 5g looked rather bare without a piece in it, even more weird without the tannins. I put one and looked great :p . Only problem was that the wood was contaminated with something making it unusable. And it looks really weird too.

[Bk828]

if you dont want the tea color but want some nice root like twisty wood then go for manzanita. Takes a bit longer to sink that mopani (mine sank in 5 days) and it wont release any tannins.

[aquaholic]

Check out this piece I picked up from a local lfs that is going out of buisness and this was in one of their tanks.

It was $4 So I figured I dont have much to loose if its not real drifwood:) It sinks right away and doesnt brown up the water at all. It just has a couple really dark spots when under water. anybody know what kind of wood this is?

[lovemybarbs]

That looks huge!

[DAVIDFBT]

Probably the root or branches from a local tree that fell into a river or lake anf they found it and brought it in. If it was already in a fish tank, then why not use it? :) It looks like a huge piece, I would trim it down to several pieces of wood if I had it.

[aquaholic]

Its almost 28" tall

[DrNo]

Looks like a person....

[aquaholic]

Is it possible to get java moss to grow all over it? if yes do I just atach some with string and let it grow on, or would I have to cover the enire thing myself??

[Lupin]

Is it possible to get java moss to grow all over it? if yes do I just atach some with string and let it grow on, or would I have to cover the enire thing myself??
Java moss will grow anywhere. You can try the string to make them attach there temporarily until they establish on it.

[Mopani Root]

hi guys, the mopane gives a natural river 'hot' effect!?
most people around the world loves this tipe of style!
the reason for the tannin, is because of the tipe of region the roots are takin out. some reagions are hotter than other, leaving less water behind, making the roots alot tougher.. shape, size, and age are the main factors from the tannin effect. the tannin can come out for up to 2 years, if it's a VERY VERY old root, with very few water in the trees life. these trees grow older than 700 years old, until rivers just drained away in the years, or lightning took out the tree.

if you guys are wondering what the proses are of taking out the roots, and handeling it, feel free to email me, and i'll forward you some pics straight from our farm.

[Robert H]

"mopani" has been in the hobby for decades. Someday maybe someone will find out the actual specie name of the tree it comes from! Many kinds of wood contain tannin, but rarely does it last for more than a few days. Once it is all leeched out, thats its. You just change your water or run some carbon to get rid of it, and you will never see it again.

Tannin is harmless, in fact it is beneficial for many fish and often triggers spawning. The only negative affect is when it is darkening the water it makes it harder for light to penetrate it, so you loose some intensity for your plants.

Here is a new type of wood from Indonesia called tambora root stumps. It contains absolutely no tannin and has unique looking shape and texture:

http://www.aquabotanic.com/images/rockandwood1.jpg

http://www.aquabotanic.com/images/DSC00334.JPG

http://www.aquabotanic.com/images/DSC00337.JPG

[Cory Keeper]

That is not mopani, that is grapevine.

[Robert H]

No, it is not grapevine, and it is not Mopani. Can't you see what I wrote? :)I said it is called Tambora wood from the jungle of Indonesia, and it contains no tannin. I imported it from Indonesia myself. I even have figurines carved from the same wood by local tribes people. Pretty cool stuff

This wood swinks on its own.

[aquaholic]

Wow nice looking wood. That would be nice looking in my tank:).

[Mindcrime121]

I've got one small piece in my tank and had a medium which accidently got left behind when I moved up north, but hoping my old room mate will mail it to me shortly. Considering other kinds of wood at this time in case he doesn't because it's so expensive. If anyone knows a good outlet for it with REALLY good prices to counterballance shipping costs, please PM me.

[bazil323]

I love Mopani wood! I got a nice piece that was completely dry from the lfs. I boiled it for about 30 minutes, let it cool, and then put it in my tank. It only let off a small amount of tannins (even in the boiling process it was negligible) for less than a month. It did "grow" a whitish slime on it for a couple months, but I just rinsed it off every week for 2 months. I haven't had a problem with it since then, 3 months later. In retrospect, I wouldn't bother with the boiling unless it came from a tank that I wasn't sure about.

[blue2fyre]

I have a piece of Mopani wood in my 55 gallon. I boiled mine when I first got it then soaked it in a bucket of water for a week, changing the water every day. When I put it in my tank there was little to no yellowing and any that did show up were quickly removed through water changes

[Mindcrime121]

I'm pretty surprised that mopani wood developed that fungus like grape wood normally does! Generally that's why it's so much more popular in a tank than grape wood, because it sinks and doesn't develop those sort of problems, not to mention the fact that you boiled it first, I can't see how any fungal spores could have survived to bloom up in your tank that way! Are you absolutely certain that the LFS didn't sell you a large piece of grape wood root? I've never known any sort of LFS sold wood to do that other than grape.

[Mindcrime121]

Ok, I retract my last post here... I got a huge log of mopani, soaked it in the tub with the water as hot as it could get from the tap, and a few days after it went into the tank I got a little nit of the same stuff on a small portion at one end of the log. Never had it happen with this kind of wood before now though... Pretty wierd.

[BradH]

When I added mopani wood to my tank... I only had to do 2 water changes before it quit coloring the water. I say go for it.

[irishspy]

Mopani is great wood. Aside from being attractive, I like it because it readily sinks. If you're worried about the tea color (I'm not fond of it, myself.), give the wood several baths in boiling water, then soak it in a tub. You'll still get some release over the next several months, but water changes and (IIRC) carbon will take care of that.