Bamboo in aquarium?

[Catalina]

I am thinking of doing something with bamboo pieces for a new aquarium. Its inhabitants will be clown loaches and serpae tetras, and maybe another type of tetra as well. I know that the clowns would like to have some bamboo cylinders lying on the substrate for them to hide in, and I was also thinking of maybe doing something in the background with bamboo, or building some sort of structure.

Can I do this? Is bamboo going to effect the ph of my aquarium? It's not so much a problem if it will lower the ph, but if it will raise it then it's a no go. I realize this is a sort of atypical question, but if anyone could help answer it I would be very grateful and impressed. Ebay has some assorted bamboo pieces that go off sale in 2 days.

 

[tkos]

If it does anything it would lower the pH. I would be careful that the bamboo isn't treated with anything before putting it inthe tank.

 

[Zic]

When I bought my Bamboo, the booklet that came with it said that the roots were covered in gel to protect them during shipping. I rinsed them off, but I didn't see any gel at all. So, I put them in water (not my tank, btw) and soon the roots started growing.

After about two weeks, I noticed the roots were really starting to grow. I poured out the water and noticed this thick, clear gel on the roots. It is similar to gelatin in texture.

It was not noticable when it was dry, but when it absorbed the water, it began to come off the plant and stuck to the inside of the vase I have the shoots in.

So, I guess my point is that if it were me, I would put the shoots in another container (glass vase or old drinking glass) in or around a window sill. Then, rinse the roots off well. Repeat this for another two weeks, just to make sure they are clean. I don't know what the gel is, but you probably don't want it in your tank.

Let us know how it turns out.

BTW, you may check it out from the seller, they may not use this gel. I got my bamboo from Kroger's floral dept.

 

[Catalina]

Wow, I think I am confused. Zic, do you mean that you actually have planted bamboo in your aquarium? How did you do this? Doesn't it take over everything? My grandma's neighbor planted a bamboo garden and it very rapidly began to break down her fence because it's such a rampant grower. Maybe I'm just missing something. I haven't had lunch yet today and I'm feeling kinda spacy.

Anyway, what I meant was that I wanted to put some assorted pieces of bamboo (like the dried bamboo cylinders) in my tank. tkos, how can I be sure that it's not treated with anything? Would that vinegar test work?

 

[Zic]

I didn't plant the bamboo in my tank. I was thinking of doing it, but I just haven't. I don't really have a reason why I didn't do it. The three shoots I have are still in glass vases in my kitchen. The roots grew a lot at first, but now they've slowed down. I don't think they'll overtake the tank, unless you let them grow and grow and never trim them. But, with many kinds of aquatic plants you must trim them so they don't overtake the tank. So bamboo would be no different. As long as you kept an eye on it, they should be ok.

I didn't realize you meant that you wanted to put dried bamboo into your tank. Chances are that it's treated with something. You would have no way of knowing, unless you ask the person you're getting it from. The vinegar test is to test if a rock or something will affect your Ph. It wouldn't tell you if it was treated or not.

Here's an idea. I saw some cool little plastic bamboo walls in my LFS. Maybe you could ask at your LFS if they could get those for you (or search the internet. I'm sure someone sells them)

 

[Crow]

A friend of mine asid he put bamboo in his tank. Don't know if it was treated or not, but he said that after about a year it rotted away. He didn't mention any water quality problems, and was planning to put more in.

 

[tkos]

Depends on why the bamboo is sold. Probably the cheap stuff might not be treated, but then again it could have remaining pesticides, waxes, anti mildew agents, anti rotting agents. There area host of things and I don't know how you would be able to tell without knowledge of how it is processed.

 

[Catalina]

Yea, thanks for making me rethink this. I don't really want bamboo rotting in my aquarium. I was wondering about those plastic bamboo walls that zic mentioned seeing at his lfs. I don't think i've ever seen anything like that. Please elaborate, as i tried to do a search on google for "bamboo aquarium backgrounds" and came up with very little besides a kit that was only good for an aquarium up to 20 gallons, and this one is 29. It was a really cool kit though, with this little Japanese stone fountain decoration...
Anyway, I was thinking of just getting some bamboo placemats off ebay and using them as an outside background, because i think that would look pretty cool. But Zic, if they sell some sort of bamboo background made for fish tanks near you, please tell me more about it.

 

[Zic]

I don't know much about it except that they sell little four to five inch long, and about three inch high "walls" of little bamboo sprouts. And that they sell them at a store named SuperPets in Peoria, Illinois. I need to buy some more frozen fish food this weekend, so I could go to that store, see what the manufacturer's name is and let you know on Monday. Of course, you'd owe me some kudos..........

 

[sweetsuvvyb]

here's another kit (also for a small tank)...the bamboo does just look like one of those placemats though...

http://www.petco.com/product_info.a...3=&ct1=D%E9cor&ct2=Ornaments+%2D+Ceramic&ct3=

 

[Zic]

Ok. I just called SuperPets and the man who answered told me the manufacturer is named "Jungle". He said they probably have a web site, but he didn't know waht it is. So, if you do a search on "Jungle" and maybe put "Aquarium supplies" in the secondary (depending on the search engine you use) you could probably find it.

Now about those Kudos......

 

[Zic]

I called Superpets. The man told me, without hesitation, that the company is called "Jungle". You can probably find it on the internet if you do a primary search on "Aquarium Suppies" and a secondary on "Jungle".

Now, about those Kudos.....

 

[Catalina]

Wow, okay I will give you some kudos. Sorry that i didn't before, I just sort of forget about those. And so many people have way more than me, so i figure that giving them a measly 5 kudos is not going to mean much. I gave kudos to everyone on this thread out of guilt now.

Thanks for the effort you went through zic. I'm not going to do a search for it, because I don't want to put live plants in this tank, as it doesn't get a lot of sun, and the fish i want don't love light. But this has been very informative, and i have decided that what i'm going to do is use woven bamboo mats as an outside background.

 

[Catalina]

Look at that, I gave out some kudos and i'm an AA regular now. I guess they do serve a purpose!

 

[Zic]

OK. The things I was talking about are not live plants, they're plastic. And I was just giving you a hard time about the Kudos, but thank you very much anyways .

I'm glad you decided what you wanted to put on your tank. I'm not the bamboo nazi or anything.

"No Bamboo for You!"

 

[Catalina]

Oh so you weren't talking about live plants? I am interested again now. I did a search for "Jungle aquarium supplies bamboo" on Google, and didn't find it, although i did find some interesting stuff, live fake jungle vines that you can wrap around driftwood with wire. But i'm still interested in this Jungle bamboo wall. If you want to take a shot at helping me again..... there will be more kudos in it for you!

Naw, i never thought you were a bamboo nazi. Just a kudos nazi.

 

[Zic]

Ok. I went to the store myself to further investigate. Turns out the reason the guy was so quick to give me the name of the company was because he was too lazy to go look. The company was called PennPlax, not Jungle. Their website is www.pennplax.com, however, I looked there and saw many of the products my LFS sells, but not the bamboo walls. There was a contact Email address for the customer service, so you may want to send them an Email and ask how you can go about finding their product.

I'm doing more work to sell their products than they are I should get a commission, just like a salesman, no?

Also, I thought it was funny, they had directions in Italian, German, Spanish, but not English. And the web site's customer service was called Consumer service. So, you may or may not be able to get someone who speaks english.

 

[Catalina]

Oh yes, I have heard of Penn Plax. I have seen their site for replica driftwood, but never any replica bamboo. This might be more trouble than its worth, but thank you SOOOOOO much for all the effort you went through. And even though Jungle was the wrong manufacturer, the search I did for it brought up some very useful items that I never would have found if it wasn't for you.
I'm sending you some kudos.

 

[Zic]

The Kudos Nazi is pleased.