Like the title asks, is there any leeway? If not, I guess I would have to get the fake wood, huh?
No wood, only rocks in a Malawi mbuna tank, any compromise?
- Thread starter Lillyan
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Well, most people need to buffer their tank in order to get the very hard water that African cichlids require. Since driftwood has a tendency to acidify the water, it would be counter intuitive to add it in most cases...but if your water is well buffered, and the wood isn't freshly leaking tannins (tea colored water in an mbuna tank would be less than ideal!) then there's no reason it can't be used.
Check out this article:
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/lake_malawi_setup.php
"Occasionally, real wood is used as decoration. The advantage of real wood is that it is lighter than rock and often comes in interesting shapes and sizes to create a really nice effect in the home aquarium. The disadvantage of wood in the Malawi cichlid aquarium is that real wood tends to lower pH, which is the opposite of what is desired. However, if there is enough buffering material in the aquarium, the wood's effects will be minimal."
Check out this article:
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/lake_malawi_setup.php
"Occasionally, real wood is used as decoration. The advantage of real wood is that it is lighter than rock and often comes in interesting shapes and sizes to create a really nice effect in the home aquarium. The disadvantage of wood in the Malawi cichlid aquarium is that real wood tends to lower pH, which is the opposite of what is desired. However, if there is enough buffering material in the aquarium, the wood's effects will be minimal."
I have wood in my Malawi tank but i also have crushed coral Sand as well plus my water is very hard and we have a natural high PH in this area..
I also have wood in my mbuna tank; no problems under the conditions stated above by Pittbull and Platytudes. In addition to that, my driftwood was 4 years in a previous tank and then, it does not release tannins enough to acidify the water because it is almost totally cured then.
I agree with the others.
If your water is hard (naturally or with buffers) and the driftwood is old (a lot of the already tannins leached out) then it wont have any big effect on the water parameters. It has to leach enough acidic tannins to overcome the buffering of the mineral salts in the water. So a small amount of old wood wont make much difference, well not enough to worry about anyway.
Ian
If your water is hard (naturally or with buffers) and the driftwood is old (a lot of the already tannins leached out) then it wont have any big effect on the water parameters. It has to leach enough acidic tannins to overcome the buffering of the mineral salts in the water. So a small amount of old wood wont make much difference, well not enough to worry about anyway.
Ian
I own a large aquarium service company and we tend to use small amounts of manzanita wood which doesn't seem to leach the tanins that some of the other wood does. It may also be that we use longer, yet more slender pieces too than the malasian and mopani woods. In my store manzanita are the only pieces of wood we recommend with Rift Lake fish. Water changes providing that your water is adequate out of the tap for Rift Lake Cichlids in the first place and/or buffering with chemicals or crushed coral/shell should be a priority for you.
Aside from any effects rocks have on water chemistry it's really all about creating the nooks and crannies for the fish...if you can accomplish that with wood in a way that is visually appealing to you then go for it...