drift wood

[stephenray75]

Can i add this to a cichlid tank?

[N8DOGG]

sure,yep
I'm looking on getting some for mine. You may or may not have to boil it to prevent it from leaching but if is does it won't hrut the tank it will just turn the tank a yellow/brown color till its done.

[JSchmidt]

What type of cichlid tank? If you keep Rift Lake african cichlids, for example, which prefer hard, alkaline water, the driftwood will not be great. It will leach tannins into the water that will tend to drive down pH and KH, not what you'd want.

So, it depends on what kind of cichlids you have...

Jim

[stephenray75]

I want green terrors, fire mouths and a few other compatables. My water is hard and naturaly has high alk. I was thinking i might need to bring it down alittle.

[sman91wing]

I had driftwood with my green terrors and they did fine together, but all I did was run it under water. I would suggest boiling as previously said because it did make my water yellow for a while.

[Cat]

Drift wood is a great idea, as your going for American cichlids which can be quite messy eaters its a good idea to keep plecs with them as they cichlids won't bother them and they will clean up food leftovers and plecs require driftwood to rasp their teach on. Look into it.

[HomerJay]

If it turns your water yellow, you can add some carbon to your filter and it will take the yellow out of the water.

[stephenray75]

I'm already running carbon. Ill find some and addit this weekend.
I added 2 clay plant pots.


:dance

[JSchmidt]

Agree, driftwood should be A-OK in your instance.

Jim

[twb716]

I have always used driftwood with my South Americans. They like it for hiding, and it stabilized my water a bit once it was in and set up.