silllywilly86
Aquarium Advice Activist
- Joined
- Apr 23, 2012
- Messages
- 104
Can I use the light brown wood in my tank? Like the stuff they put in reptile terrariums
Can I use the light brown wood in my tank? Like the stuff they put in reptile terrariums
Can I use the light brown wood in my tank? Like the stuff they put in reptile terrariums
Driftwood produces tannis and humic acid which softens the water and drops your PH. Lake Malawi has hard alkaline water. IMO using driftwood would be counterproductive as you would have to use product and buffers to. Prefect your water chemistry.
Does it need to be soaked before hand?
I agree and at the same time respectfully disagree(if that makes sense)I have, I think about 6 pieces of driftwood in my tank and never used anything to "buffer" my water. Now I did in the beginning thinking I needed to but after running out of products I just went with water changes. Everything was fine.
I state though... I recently had to start buffering because my tap water pH dropped to 6.0 which is just way too low.
Bottom line is many many use driftwood with no issues and stability is key. Most cichlids at a pet/fish shop are in neutral pH...
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/members/46421-albums11717.html
The acid leached out of the driftwood should not have much of an effect on the pH of your water if it is highly buffered. My mbuna tank had a kH of 14+. It would take a whole lotta driftwood to bring the pH from 8.2 to 8.1
It depends on the type of wood. My lfs sold mopani wood in the reptile section and it's great aquarium wood.
Thank you all for the help. If I do it I'll post a pic