African Root Wood

[Will91]

Hi all:

I saw a beautiful piece of wood in a tank at my lfs tonight. I was told it was "african root wood". The shop sold me the piece that had been in one of their tanks six months. It is definitely saturated with water and the exterior is pretty soft. I did some internet research and have read that some Mopani wood that is sold is sandblasted to "prevent water contamination". I'm not sure if the sandblasting creates a hard, impermeable surface, but this piece of wood is clearly water logged - one could easily scrape off the top surface it is so soft.

I hope this is the best forum for these questions but it seemed appropriate since it seems folks with live plants also tend to use other natural items such as wood.

1) Do I need to treat the wood in any way before putting it in my tank? I read it is advisable to boil the wood but can I skip any pretreatment because it has already been in a tank? I don't want to risk any transfer of disease from the store or anything else in the wood that might be harmful. I have it soaking right now in some fresh tap water treated with my declorinator.
2) Will the root wood tint my water? I have a 26 US gallon tank.
3) Will the wood appreciably lower the tank pH because of tannic acid release? My thoughts are with weekly 20% water changes it shouldn't drift too low.

Thanks for any help!

 

[madgap]

For it to be soft at the surface sounds wrong to me. Indeed I could be wrong in thinking so, and I hope for your sake, haveing spent money on it, that I am wrong.
Having been a woodworker all my life I've come to expect that wood that is soft with water is breaking down.
Again, I hope I'm wrong, but, I reckon the people who sold you it are probably thinking 'money for nothing'.

 

[Will91]

Thanks. By soft, I don't mean the wood is entirely spongy, but there is some amount of decomposition going on with this piece of wood. When I handled it at the store, brown-black debris rubbed off on my hands.

I have done some further research and there appears to be two types of African woods used in aquariums or perhaps two terms for this same type of wood - African wood root and African Mopani wood. They say the Mopani wood does not decompose like driftwood so I'm almost wondering if the African wood root is a variety of driftwood.?? Also, this African wood root is not multi-colored like the Mopani is often advertised to be. My piece is pretty much dark brown.

Well, the piece was only $5 USD and I have it soaking in a bucket right now. If someone else could shed some light on this topic, I would surely appreciate it.

This site has a picture of what looks to be the same type of wood I bought. They call it African driftwood.

http/www.azgardens.com/Driftwood.php

Here is "Mopani" wood offered by Petco. Note they call it a "hardwood".

http/www.petco.com/shop/product.aspx?familyid=102556

 

[DevUK]

From the pics in the fist link, I'd say it is mopani.

All wood will degrade in water (except maybe true bog oak or of course petrified (fossil) wood). I have bogwood that does the same. I don't think it will be a problem as long as its not breaking appart and clouding your water. Depending on your fish, I beleive some fish (loach/catfishes mostly?) will actually eat it in small quantities (don't quote me on what species thouh )

It would probably be best to try to rinse it thoroughly in boiling water, depending on its size. Also give it a good scrub to get rid of any loose bits (probably best to scrub it first).

 

[jrh]

From the pics in the fist link, I'd say it is mopani.

All wood will degrade in water (except maybe true bog oak or of course petrified (fossil) wood). I have bogwood that does the same. I don't think it will be a problem as long as its not breaking appart and clouding your water. Depending on your fish, I beleive some fish (loach/catfishes mostly?) will actually eat it in small quantities (don't quote me on what species thouh )

It would probably be best to try to rinse it thoroughly in boiling water, depending on its size. Also give it a good scrub to get rid of any loose bits (probably best to scrub it first).

Both of those links look like Mopani to me. Mopani is a very hard wood, and in my experience, stays pretty hard even after months of being submerged. You might be able to scratch the surface with your fingernail, but you wouldn't be able to push your nail down and make a little crescent-shaped dent or anything.

In any case, whether you can dent it or not, it's not likely to cause problems. Boiling it will take care of any germies/hitchhikers you're worried about introducing to your tank. This will also give you an idea of the tanins it'll leach into your tank. If you notice a lot of tanins in the boil water, you're probably better off boiling it a second or third time until the water stays relatively clear.

 

[Will91]

Thanks everyone!

The piece of wood is actually too tall and unwieldly to place in a pot of boiling water on the stove. I could pour boiling water over it in the sink but that won't really let the boiling water permeate deep into the wood. What about soaking for a few days in dilute vinegar followed by soaking in plain water? I heard some folks actually autoclave wood intended for aquariums! I don't think I have one of those under my sink

 

[jrh]

I wouldn't recommend pouring boiling water into an aquarium. Glass is likely to crack from the abrupt temperature change, and who knows what it would do to plexiglass.

Does the wood fit in a 5 gallon bucket? If so, put it in there, and add hot water from the tap, and refresh it as it cools and you notice.

Since it's already been in an aquarium for awhile, I'd just leave it at that.

 

[divisible by zero]

I would say that if it's been in a tank already, you don't need to boil it. At most let it dry out for a day or 2 to let any 'nasties' from the LFS to die off.

 

[Will91]

Thanks everyone:

jrh...I didn't mean to imply I would pour boiling water over it in the actual tank. I meant that the piece is large and unwieldly that putting it in some sort of household pot wouldn't work. At best I could pour boiling water over it while it is placed in a sink or bucket.

I like the idea of drying out the piece of wood - perhaps out in the sun. But if I want to do this quicker and don't want to put it directly in my tank, would it be better to let is soak in dilute vinegar water or dilute bleach? Either way, I figure I going to have to let is soak again to make sure all the vinegar or bleach leaches out again.