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Curing Driftwood.

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#1 ·
Ok so I bought my first piece of driftwood today. Mopani. I misunderstood Byron's comments in other threads and paid more for it because I thought he had a superior opinion of it over Malaysian. Rereading the posts.. it's the other way around I guess. Malaysaian > Mopani :-(.

That being said I know many people use Mopani driftwood without a problem. What do I need to do to prepare the wood for my tank.

Alternatively should I see about possibly getting a refund for it and exchange it for Malaysian? Problem that might occur with that idea is there was a small tear in the packaging when we got it. By the time we got it home it wasn't such a small tear anymore.

In the future I'll gladly be buying Malaysian.
 
#2 ·
I have a piece of Mopani DW in my tank for about a year with no issues. I wouldn't say Malaysian is better, more like I like the look of Malaysian DW more than Mopani. I have both and Malaysian DW is easier to stack on top of each other, gives the tank a great look. I'd say go for both.

As for prepping Mopani, It gives off a lot of Tannins so boil it over and over till the water's not as brown as when your first start boiling. I boiled each piece of my DW for about an hour. Even then, it'll probably continue to leach Tannins.
 
#3 · (Edited)
I just added a new piece of mopani wood to my tank on the weekend. I boiled it for about 4-5 hrs, changing the water as it got dark. Then soaked it in a 5 gallon pail for a week, changing the water daily as it got dark. I love the look of it in my tank, and it did color my water a little but I think it makes the aquarium look even more real.
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#4 ·
I too have some mopani wood in a couple tanks .
Pieces are a couple years old.
Have seen and heard of this particular wood developing a Fungi even after boiling.
If this occurs, I have found that soaking the wood in tub with 5ml of hydrogen Peroxide per ten gallons of water for a couple days, and then rinsing it well, can destroy the Fungi and cause no harm to fishes,snails,shrimp,or plant's after it is treated this way.
On occasions when i have seen the Fungi appear on wood ,trumpet snails seemed to swarm all over it and it did no harm to fishes but others,,have reported otherwise.
I also on occasion use hydrogen peroxide to treat bacterial infection's,fin rot, on fishes and to enhance biological filtration after adding more than three or four fish to my tank's.(increase oxygen)
Is not safe in my view to use it on regular basis, for it will affect biological filter when no more bad bacteria is present.(/will deplete good bacteria)
 
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