Richard Sexton wrote:
Bogwood is wood that has been taken from a peat bog. The tannic and humic
acids preserve the wood in a sort of quasi petrified state. I'm playing around
with throwing bits of wood in a var of wet peat for a few months. I'll
report back when I'm done.

As for the question of grapewood in the aquaria, there seem to be divergant
opinions. One school of thought has it that it'll rot and you should only
use woods like mopani that's hard and heavy and won't rot.

Or, the opposite camp feels all wood rots and that's a good thing, pl*cos eat
the rot and it contriutes tanic and humc acids to the tank.

One side feels you should probably spray clear polyurethane on any wood you
put in a tank while the other side feeels if you do that you may as well use
artificial wood and plastic plants.

I use grapewood, ceder (Thuja), apple branches, you name it. Just let it soak
in a tub till the fuzz goes away (unless you have a lot of plecs
that eat this stuff - to many fo them it's their batural diet)
then use a stainless steel screw to attach it to a piece of
slate you drilled a hole into, and you're done.

Hey, stranger! Wheredja go? I've missed your posts.

Man, oh man am I getting blackwater from my big pieces of Mopani in the
new tank. NetMax was right. I have tea colored water despite using
fresh carbon, and the pH is starting to fall a bit. Good thing all the
fish in there are sof****er.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com