Mopani Wood

[Heather Lynn]

How long should you soak Mopani Wood before you put it into your fish tank? I found a pretty nice piece at a fish store that I'm going to purchase tomorrow and I know it's going to make my tank look awesome but I don't want to put it into the tank before I should. How will I know when it's ready to be added? Can it harm fish of any kind? I have no fish in my tank as of right now. My tank just finished the cycling process and I was going to get this the same time I was going to add fish to my tank but I want to be able to put the fish in my tank at the same time.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

You could soak it for a month and it may still leach tannins. It doesn't hurt the fish, just makes tea out of your tank. Change the water everyday and you'll begin to see the discoloring in the bucket slow down, when it does try it in your tank for a couple days and if it starts to leach, pull it out and keep soaking is my only suggestion.

I have 1 piece of Mopani and hope to get more, it's great looking DW.

 

[jcolon]

From my experience, you can pretty much put it in your tank right away, however it will release tannins which will slightly lower the tank's pH, and will give the water a tea color. Rest assured it will not harm the fish .. though the color change could be unsettling if your not expecting it. Mopani wood tends to sink right away so there should be no need to anchor it down.

You can soak it in a bucket to release some of the tannins. Drain the bucket, refill and re-soak for a couple of days ... and your tank water should not be as tea-colored as if you just put the wood directly into the tank

 

[ocean]

You could give it a good scrubbing, or soak it and change water daily to get rid of the tanins, } don't like the tea colored water it makes. Or what I did was boil it. Change water often til the water is clear. Depending on the size of the wood time will vary.

 

[allaboutfish]

mines been soaking for a week and it's almost done you just have to wait until the water is a really really light brown. if it stains your water just add carbon every week until it's gone.

 

[HUKIT]

I've had pieces that were boiled for hours and still leached six months later.