# Wood lowering pH?



## funkycat (Oct 12, 2007)

I was just wondering if driftwood lowers the pH really badly,
I was debating on putting some in my shelldweller tank for the bristlenose, but i dont know how it will effect the water? or how it will look
If it looks bad, do you think the bristlenose really needs it? he seems pretty happy with the ceramic pot already. Or will possible future babies need it?


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## naegling23 (Jan 4, 2008)

small drop in pH. In my experience, it takes the tank water to ~6.5 or so, but it will be determined by what your buffering capacity is. It will also leach tannins, so your water will stain a yellowish brown. You can remove them with carbon in the filter, or boil the heck out of the driftwood to try and get rid of most of them before you put it into the tank.

Yes, your bristlenose needs the driftwood, Im glad you are taking this into consideration. This also demonstrates one of the problems with mixing different types/biotopes of fish. Since the shellies dont usually have driftwood, and the bristlenoses require it. Is there a different type of cleanup fish that might work better?


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## F8LBITEva (Nov 9, 2007)

I put a large piece in my tank and dropped my PH from 8.0 to 7.0 and no matter how much buffer I put in would go back to 7.0 If its a small piece boil the brown out of it and it shouldnt effect the PH as long as its done leaching out the brown.


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## JL15219 (Jan 2, 2008)

I have a big piece of drift wood in my 60 gal tank and it doesnt really lower the pH in my tank...it lowers it from 7.9 to 7.7 which is not to bad...my water straight from the facet is already hard, I also use baking soda to increase the buffering capacity. :fish:


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## Cook.MN (Mar 11, 2008)

I have two large pieces of driftwood in my tank, each one is 20-22 inches and my PH hasn't dropped AT ALL from them.

Just my luck =P


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## funkycat (Oct 12, 2007)

thanks for all the replies 
For now i just stuck a small piece in the plecos "cave" 
Since its so small i doubt it will do anything to the water, but it should be enough to get the fibre he needs.


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