# Driftwood or not



## pondmom (Feb 13, 2004)

I'm looking to add driftwood to my 125g frontosa tank. I'd like your opinion on what kind to get and where I can find it cheap.
Currently I have feather rock and want to change things around. What do you all use in your tanks.
I appreciate your opinions :wink:


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## Charles (Feb 25, 2003)

In general, drift wood tends to lower the ph and tan your water. If you like the drift wood looks, try some flake one. You don't have to monitor your water using those.


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## chago (Mar 4, 2008)

is there anything one can do to treat the wood and avoid it from lowering the pH?


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## cichlidgirl1 (Sep 17, 2007)

Yes!! boil it for about 4 hours in a pot, it will leach the tannins out like a teabag in a cup of hot water. If you want to avoid tannins all togeher get some malasian driftwood or african root, minimal or no tannins leached into the water, i have had malasian driftwood for 8 mo and not had any tannins. You can also collect wild natural driftwood and do the same thing (boiling) if it wont sink go to the hardware store and get the screws that dont rust, drill a hole in a piece of slate or flat rock and attatch, presto sinking wood on a base, cover base with sand etc.. or if rock leave it exposed.


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## GJx (Mar 13, 2003)

Overall, I would have to just repeat what is common knowledge in the hobby as it relates to driftwood/tannins & bringing the pH down.

But I can also honestly admit that I've used driftwood (boiled African Root) in my Front tank for awhile over the years & kept my pH up to acceptable levels.

It can be comfortably done if you keep a close watch out for your water parameters.


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## cichlidgirl1 (Sep 17, 2007)

I have alot of experience with driftwood. I kept south american cichlids for 20 yrs and had lots of driftwood in all my tanks, i let the tannins leach especially in the discus tanks. Now that i keep africans i avoid tannins by using aged driftwood and malasian driftwood only. No problems here . I really like how it looks, just a habit from my new world days LOL.

Tannins will lower ph and stain (just tint, not cloud) the water. I find that using the malasian wood and aged (7 yr old) wood that any tannins are not visable to naked eye and are likely extremely small and removed with my frequent water changes. Just my opinion on tannins. I usually just tell people to avoid grape vine and root wood and uncured normal wood. i really was impressed with malasian wood, just so pricey .


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## Skyhawk46 (Nov 9, 2007)

I just recently lost 2 of my fronts from being an IDIOT! I have some driftwood in my 125 and i didnt check the pH for a while and it got way out of control and i lost one, accidentally over corrected and lost another... i have one left and he is a trooper... i love that guy!


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## cichlidgirl1 (Sep 17, 2007)

Skyhawk46 said:


> I just recently lost 2 of my fronts from being an IDIOT! I have some driftwood in my 125 and i didnt check the pH for a while and it got way out of control and i lost one, accidentally over corrected and lost another... i have one left and he is a trooper... i love that guy!


wow, sorry to hear that , how low did it drop ? I have fronts in with wood and have had no problems so far. But i have to point out the center piece is not new wood and the other wood is malasian. Here is a pic, you can see there are no tannins in the water and my ph is stable:










This pic was taken when the tank was actually overdue for a water change so the tannins would really have been showing up. You can usually see them, yellowing or even darker tinting of the water between water changes.

Here is the link to a short video in the daytime that shows the tank free of tannins:
http://s238.photobucket.com/albums/...7/?action=view&current=mpimbwefryvideo042.flv

I believe the key to keeping driftwood with fronts and other africans is frequent water changes and correct selection of wood to put in the tank.

CG


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## lloyd (Aug 24, 2005)

cichlidgirl1 said:


> I believe the key to keeping driftwood with fronts and other africans is frequent water changes and correct selection of wood to put in the tank.


 good answer.  i would not keep much of any wood with adult frontosa, though. i prefer to give them open concept tanks with only a few rounded rock. even still, there is often forehead dints and body scratches on them.


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## cichlidgirl1 (Sep 17, 2007)

yeah, that makes good sense. I have it with babies and juvies as you can see from my pic. a large foot long fish might have trouble navagating around it when they spook lol.


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## pondmom (Feb 13, 2004)

Thank you all for the great replies.
I thought that I could just to to Lake Superior and find some driftwood on the shore there(No?)
Does anyone have a link to an online store that would sell it cheap?


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## cichlidgirl1 (Sep 17, 2007)

yes, you can get it from the lake (I live on lake onterio LOL) and plan on getting some this summer when i go fishing. What you do is boil it in a pot for a couple hours on simmer (low heat) that will season or cure it. It will kill any creepy crawlies , germs, fungus, and bacteria. Boiling it will leach out most or all of the tannins, keep boiling it till when you add more water in it is not tinted brown anymore. natural wood might not have any left anyway if you find some bleached white. If it wont sink when you are done you can go to the hardware store and get some screws that dont rust (galvinaized i think? they will know there) and go to home depot or lowes and see if you can find a piece of lanscape rock, about a inch thick and wide enough for the wood, ask them to drill a couple holes in it where the wood will attatch. voila. DIY 100 dollar driftwood centerpeice. I made mine, the one in the center with the curved wood peices, that is actually three peices each one screwed into the base and one screwed into the other piece of wood. easy since i asked the hardware place to drill the rock for me, did it for free. i had them drill one on each corner and one in the center so i had more area to choose from on the base.


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