Driftwood bought from PetsMart do I need to boil it first to remove...

[Andy Louie]

I heard that you have to boil it first to remove the impurities.. is
it need as they say that it will discolor the water... so by boiling
it it will prevent the aquarium from being colored.. suggestions

[Ryan Wilson]

> I heard that you have to boil it first to remove the impurities.. is
> it need as they say that it will discolor the water... so by boiling
> it it will prevent the aquarium from being colored.. suggestions

Hey Andy
People usually boil driftwood to remove what are called tannins..these will
color the water a brown color. This is usually from driftwood the collect. I
would think that if you are getting it from a pet store and it is meant for
aquarium use, you would not need to boil it. I would just suggest you rinse
it off to make sure there is no dust and such on it. I cant seeing boiling
it would hurt it as long as you didnt do it to long.
Hope this helps
Ryan

[Splitskull]

I boiled because i wanted to take out the color.... After 16h I took it
out, let it cool, rinse, .... and it still colors the water (probably not so
much...)
Just be prepared for some brown-ish water :-)

--

Splitskull

"Andy Louie" > wrote in message
om...
> I heard that you have to boil it first to remove the impurities.. is
> it need as they say that it will discolor the water... so by boiling
> it it will prevent the aquarium from being colored.. suggestions

[Eric Schreiber]

(Andy Louie) wrote:

>I heard that you have to boil it first to remove the impurities.. is
>it need as they say that it will discolor the water... so by boiling
>it it will prevent the aquarium from being colored.. suggestions

My approach was the soak the wood in a bleach solution for several
hours, not to remove the tannins but rather to kill any organisms that
might be on the wood.

Then I soaked the wood for a couple of weeks, changing the water every
other day or so. When the water no longer picked up much of the tannin
coloration, I put it in my tank.

No matter what you do, some leaching of tannin coloring is probably
inevitable. A bit of charcoal in the filter will help keep the water
clear.


--
www.ericschreiber.com

[Dan Norgard]

I don't know about your Petsmart but ours has nothing but very real looking
artifical driftwood...made of resins. Stick it in the tub for a day and see
what comes out.
Dan
"Andy Louie" > wrote in message
om...
I heard that you have to boil it first to remove the impurities.. is
it need as they say that it will discolor the water... so by boiling
it it will prevent the aquarium from being colored.. suggestions

[Kate]

i put the mopani wood in my anabantid tank after only rinsing the dust off.
I was using distilled water and the colour didn't bother me. In fact i
found that fish coilours were more intense and the plants i had in there did
very well too. may not have had anything to do with the tannins, but the
added colour from the drift wood made my tank look very natural. Is water
in the world all crystal clear?
"Dan Norgard" > wrote in message
...
> I don't know about your Petsmart but ours has nothing but very real
looking
> artifical driftwood...made of resins. Stick it in the tub for a day and
see
> what comes out.
> Dan
> "Andy Louie" > wrote in message
> om...
> I heard that you have to boil it first to remove the impurities.. is
> it need as they say that it will discolor the water... so by boiling
> it it will prevent the aquarium from being colored.. suggestions
>
>

[amanda]

I have driftwood as do my family. I have never boiled it. Just rinsed it in
hot water for a minute or 2 and put it in.

Hope this helps!!
"Andy Louie" > wrote in message
om...
> I heard that you have to boil it first to remove the impurities.. is
> it need as they say that it will discolor the water... so by boiling
> it it will prevent the aquarium from being colored.. suggestions

[Moontanman]

I wouldn't boil any drift wood any more than I would boil live rock in a marine
tank. it's really the same principle except the organisms on drift wood are
microscopic.

Moon
remove nospam from e-mail to send to me, I grow trees in aquariums like bonsai.
I breed dwarf crayfish, great for planted community tanks. If you can get me a
shovelnose sturgeon fingerling (Scaphirhynchus platorynchus) no wild caught
please, contact me