Driftwood Help

cjr4497

cjr4497

AC Members
Nov 8, 2005
31
0
0
i am trying to cure a piece of driftwood that i found for my tank. i read in an article here on AC that i need to boil it and drain the water 4 times to remove the tannons. i have done that process 7 or 8 times and the water still turns yellow.

is it safe to put in my tank or do i just keep boiling it untill the water doesn't turn yellow? is it possible that it because of the type of wood that it is (i don't have a clue. it came out of the mississippi river.) it will never be safe to put in my tank.
 
If you want the Ph too lower then it should be fine. How long are boiling for? Is the water as yellow as the first time you boiled it? If the water is only turning a little bit yellow then you should be fine.
 
First--let's differentiate issues.

Boiling the wood will kill pretty much any potential pathogens. This has been done, so the wood can be considered 'clean' in that aspect.

Second, changing out the water several times removes more tannins. Tannins are not harmful. They will alter water parameters, and reduce pH, but this isn't always a bad thing. Tannins can be easily removed in a tank by running fresh carbon (though you may end up replacing the carbon more often than you like!). But, most wood will continue to leach tannins for a long time--sometimes years. Different types leach different amounts at different rates--mopani tends to leach very little, IME, while softer woods leach more. Choosing wood that meets your need will help in keeping the tank healthy and happy.

Third: if the wood was 'found', you may have more than just tannins to deal with. Boiling will remove most of the common potential problems, but remember that wood is porous, so anything that is in the water can get into it, and later leach out. Tannins happen to be one natural thing, but you have to assume that anything that's in the source water will also be in the wood. Some can be easily removed--but it will be hard to test and verify that this has occured. Consider everything that gets dumped into the Mississippi--would you put the water in your tank? If not, you may want to reconsider using wood that was in the river in your tank. At the very least, research what all might be in there.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom