Best way to pre-treat Malaysian driftwood ...
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Boil it... then boil it some more... then a little more...
I am not certain exactly how much of a difference it really makes as I boiled mine for somewhere around 8-12 hours over the course of a couple of days, changed the water a few times and the tank water colored up quickly. After a few months now it seems to have slowed down and water changes have a longer lasting effect on water colour.
I have another piece to put in this weekend, which will be my third, and I may only do a short boil to clean off some of the surface stuff.
The tannins don't bother the fish, in fact some do better with darker water. I didn't mind the coloration but my wife was disappointed that the water was not perfectly clear... she got over it.
Jeff.
I am not certain exactly how much of a difference it really makes as I boiled mine for somewhere around 8-12 hours over the course of a couple of days, changed the water a few times and the tank water colored up quickly. After a few months now it seems to have slowed down and water changes have a longer lasting effect on water colour.
I have another piece to put in this weekend, which will be my third, and I may only do a short boil to clean off some of the surface stuff.
The tannins don't bother the fish, in fact some do better with darker water. I didn't mind the coloration but my wife was disappointed that the water was not perfectly clear... she got over it.
Jeff.
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Boiling is like soaking.... except accelerated. I poured off so much nasty "tea" that you couldn't see much past 1 inch through the crap... boil it. The boiling can serve to help kill off some things that could be lurking on the wood, although it won't kill a fungus.
Mixed opinions? I suppose someone has to have an opinion, I just see a concrete difference between soaking and boiling. Check the pic, you won't remove tannins at that level in a few weeks... and I dumped it off like that a few times.
Jeff.
Mixed opinions? I suppose someone has to have an opinion, I just see a concrete difference between soaking and boiling. Check the pic, you won't remove tannins at that level in a few weeks... and I dumped it off like that a few times.
Jeff.
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IMO depends on the size of the piece. If it's small, go ahead and boil the heck out of it. For larger pieces I find it easier to just let them soak.
My driftwood has never leached near so many tannins as JDM's, though.
My driftwood has never leached near so many tannins as JDM's, though.
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Yah, it makes a difference if you are getting larger pieces. I happen to have a pot that fit. You aren't likely to want to go out and spend $75 on a pot just to boil some wood that you could have soaked. That may be the difference in opinions.
As an alternative, if you didn't mind staining a plastic tub, you could boil some water and use that to start the soak, hot water will leach faster than cooler.
Ultimately you could just plop the wood into the tank and it is the same as soaking, you just change the water once a week anyway and, eventually, it slows down.
Who knows, you might like the colored water... although it lowers the effective light levels somewhat.
As an alternative, if you didn't mind staining a plastic tub, you could boil some water and use that to start the soak, hot water will leach faster than cooler.
Ultimately you could just plop the wood into the tank and it is the same as soaking, you just change the water once a week anyway and, eventually, it slows down.
Who knows, you might like the colored water... although it lowers the effective light levels somewhat.
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Actually, that reminded me.... that nasty boiling business was what I initially thought was a Malaysian driftwood but was actually a mopani piece. I boiled the Malaysian piece but not as much and I don't recall if it was as bad.... it mustn't have been or I would remember it better.
I'm going to take note for the third piece as I will boil it and see.
Jeff.
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I boiled mopani before. No how many times I boiled it, changed the water, and boiled it again it leaked dark tannins. So I got fed up and just chucked it into my tank. Might have taken a few months before water changes saw the water turn clear but...I'm getting off my point.
I no longer boil wood. I soak it if it doesn't want to sink right away, and then chuck it in. It's not that big of a deal really with the tannins. However I do have one large piece that succeeded in changing my PH down to 6.3 because it leached so badly it turned my water gold. Fish didn't seem to mind though!
OP don't worry about the water turning colors unless it's a massive piece of wood. Your fish don't mind and given time it will clear. I've heard some people use carbon during this process to help soak up the tannins. Just make sure what you have is Malaysian, and not Mopani.
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