I recently bought a large piece of mopani wood from my LFS and was wondering if anyone has any experience with this wood.
Is it necessary to boil it or is soaking alone okay? How long should it be soaked?
Mopani wood does leach tannins. It should be soaked in a bucket until there is no leaching. There might be an occurance of a white fungus on it but this will go away after a while. I have heard that plants attach easily.
Boiling would help get alot of the tannins out quickest but soaking it a week or two and dumping some scolding hot water in when changing the water will help some too. Either way don't expect to get all of them out.
I added Mopani wood to my tank. I boiled it multiple times and soaked it. It has still leached tannins for 4 months, and the water was even more yellow when I was running activated carbon (mainly just because the wood was newest when I first put it in the tank and I only had the carbon for the first month). It doesn't leach as much now. Once I got used to it I don't mind at all, I mainly notice after a water change when the water suddenly looks less yellow! The fish and shrimp do love it.
Don't boil it. Boiling breaks down the fibers in it, and causes it to deteriorate faster. If you don't like the tea stained colored water, run carbon in your filter. If it floats, it probably will, then put a rock on it to hold it down.
