Boiling wood.
 

Has anyone put store bought Mopani in a tank without boiling and had problems? What is the minimum boiling time?

I didn't boil my new wood and 3 days later my fish started glancing. I'm boiling now and 3 hours later the water is still very dark. I read that excess tannins from the wood can cause a PH drop. Maybe that caused the glancing.

I bought a really big piece that would have been a pain to boil, so I just soaked it in a ten gallon bucket for two weeks, changing the water every day. It obviously takes longer but it works just fine for me.

I wouldn't connect the two [meaning the flashing and the wood] unless the wood came from a tank with fish at the store, in which case it could carry protozoans. As for the change in pH, this is not usually significant, maybe one decimal point if that, unless the tank is very small, the GH and KH are very low, and the wood is huge.

I have found Mopani to be worse for tannins than Malaysian Driftwood, plus the Mopani floats until it is waterlogged (or you somehow hold it down). Fungus might be a problem, though I am still not sure if this is more with grapewood or Manzanita wood than Mopani, as all three look the same to me and stores may well mis-label them.

Byron.

I have an old gnarly piece of wood sitting by my fireplace. It is seasoned looking like driftwood but I suspect it may have been part of a root system at one time. I have no idea the species of tree/bush. I found it lying around two years ago. If I were to guess, I'd say cherry, maple or alder since that abounds here. However, there is also cedar in the area.

It is about 1.5 inches in diameter and almost 4 feet long, the perfect size for my recently actuated 55 gal. I think that wood may benefit my tank parameters although I've never used wood in any of my previous aquariums (ancient history).

I'm looking for any comments like; Don't do it! It might be okay. Try this first.
If you use it clean it by...

I had a piece of wild collected wood in my tank and for months my platys glanced. I chased ghost problems until I pulled the wood out and did a 50% wc. The next day there was no glancing and the platys behavior changed. The breeding became more efficient. The females became more receptive. Four days later I bought some Mopani (although it sank ), soaked it over night and put it in. 2 days later, when the water darkened, they started glancing and the females went back to being relatively unreceptive. My water comes out of the tap at PH-7.5. Currently the tanks PH is 7.6 but I've done several wc over the last 2 days. So maybe it's not a PH problem. What is happening ?

It all depends upon exactly what species of tree the wood is from. You mentioned cedar, this is very dangerous in an aquarium as the resin is highly toxic. Cedar also rots quickly, being a soft wood.

Hard woods are fine, but again depending upon species. I know oak and beech work OK, as I have seen frequent references to these online.

As some one who has twice lost fish to toxic wood--but who has tanks full of wood--I would be very careful. I will only use Malaysian Driftwood bought in stores. Knowing you are in my area, you can get this at Petsmart and Petland stores. You can also buy it online, though you don't know which exact piece you are buying since they are all different.

Byron.

I have 2 large and one meduim piece of malaysian driftwood in my tank. I boiled all 3 pieces for about 2+ hours each before iI put them in. They still turn the water kinda tea stained over a week or so. I do weekly water changes of about 30-40% to get the water somewhat back to normal color. They will leach tannins unboiled for up to 6 months, 1-2 months if you boil them. Everything I've been told and read, the tannins are harmless to fish.

I've read they're harmless also, but they seem to be affecting my fish in a negative way. (My last post in this thread). Maybe there's something else contributing to the problem.