Help-newbie to driftwood

[bud29]

Hi all, I went to a pet store an hour and a half away from me today and was extremely happy to find bristlenose plecos. I was so happy because in my city they only have common plecos. I know all plecos need driftwood and I was wondering where to get some. I don't need much, just a small piece or two. I was wondering if petsmart or petco has any.

 

[gobluewolverines4]

i got mine at a petco, but this is an upscale petco. a nice little piece is always nice, i wanna get a pleco now!!

 

[vanimal]

Cool I got my Bristlenose Pleco a small piece of Mopani from Petsmart! This is him eating it sorry for the poor quality. My phone camera sucks...

 

[bud29]

Oh, and does driftwood need to stay in water or can it be out of water for a while (a few days)

 

[bud29]

Cool I got my Bristlenose Pleco a small piece of Mopani from Petsmart! This is him eating it sorry for the poor quality. My phone camera sucks...

View attachment 105799

Thanks! I'll go to petsmart soon and see if I can get some.

 

[vanimal]

It can be out but before you add it to your aquarium soak it in a bucket for a while and the water will turn yellowish. Keep adding new water to the bucket and after the water is clear its fine to add to your tank. This might take a couple of days but it's better than having yellow fish tank water the instructions to doing this are on the tag of the driftwood if you need it explained better.

 

[aqua hobbyist]

Mopani wood leech tannins which stains the water as tea color. You will want to soak it for at least a week in a bucket and replace the water each day it gets "tanned". Or you could just plop into the tank now, it will only make the ph lower and water will be more "natural looking". Adding carbon to your filter will help and crushed corals in mesh net will raise the ph a little!

 

[vanimal]

Well it depends his original Ph. Like for me mine is about 7.8 but the drift wood lowers it down to about 7.2 which is good!

 

[bud29]

I might just plop it in and see what happens.......my pH is 8.2-8.4 so I really need it to be lowered.

 

[vanimal]

Well I bet it will help and make your tank look better too. Good luck to you and your Bristlenose

 

[vanimal]

Can you post some pics of your tank after you've added the driftwood?

 

[bud29]

Sure. Look for the pics on this thread next Monday. I'm on vacation now so I won't be seeing my tank again till late Sunday night.

 

[bud29]

Went to petsmart today! Finally saw a german blue ram! They're awesome, but too hard to care for at the time being. I bought a piece of mopani wood and I also got a veggie clip for when I get the pleco. I'm really getting excited about my fish! If only my tank would cycle.......

 

[bud29]

Here's at least a picture of the wood, not in the tank yet:

 

[bud29]

And one last thing: I know that huge pH drops can kill a cycle. How big of a drop does it take? I don't want the wood to cause a crash and then I have to start over........

 

[brennae]

I got some very nice pieces of drift wood and an API test kit for super cheap off amazon. www.biglasonline.com is good too

 

[bud29]

Well, looking at amazon I got my mopani wood from petsmart at the same price, so that's good.