Driftwood ID please..

[Brian_Nano12g]

I have this piece of driftwood I bought a while back that had those air plants on them (bromeliads.. Not sure the spelling). The plants had since died and now I'm thinking of using it in one of my aquariums. Anyone know if this is suitable and what type is it? I started soaking it 2 days ago to leach the tannins and get it water logged. It's fairly heavy and seems like a hardwood. Not light like grapewood.

 

[HUKIT]

Looks like mopani, it will usually tannins longer than your alive!

 

[tamtam]

I suggest boiling it for a few hours. I've found it very helpful it speeding up the tannin removal and even water logging.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Thanks guys! @Hukit are you saying that it will continue to bleed tannins 'forever' ? That would not be good.. Does the boiling resolve that?

 

[HUKIT]

Thanks guys! @Hukit are you saying that it will continue to bleed tannins 'forever' ? That would not be good.. Does the boiling resolve that?

I've had some pieces leach for each years, so much that I eventually gave up and switched to manzanita or malaysian. The mopani does look in my garden now. The larger the piece the more it will leach, I boiled the crap of mine for hours and hours and even ran it through the dishwasher with no success.

 

[Fishandmusic81]

I've had success with mopani I boiled the piece for 7 hours then let it soak in a bucket and put it in my tank and it leeches very little it's hardly noticeable and with weekly water changes the water looks very clear

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Oh cool! So there's some hope in using it... I looked up Mopani and read some review on Dr. Fosters and read some other thread on it at Monster Fish Keepers forum. I do have some activated carbon I can use to clear up the stained water. But I'm wondering how I can boil it since the piece I have is larger than any cooking pot that I have... Do I just boil water and dump in the bucket that its soaking in now?

 

[Fishandmusic81]

Can you boil it by parts?
Like fit one piece in then just flip it and boil the other part

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Duhh.... I suppose I could.. don't know why that didn't occur to me as an option! LOL... I guess, I didn't want the wifey to see me cooking stuff in her pots..

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

Well I decided to ditch the mobani for some malaysian dw. I'm rather happy with the outcome. I boiled the sucker for hours to leach tannins. So far my tank is clear on day 1.