Driftwood Causing Large Ph Drop

[librarygirl]

Hi! Almost a week ago I found a beautiful piece of driftwood at my LFS that I want to use in my tank. I soaked it in very hot water and when I checked the PH of the water after 24 hours my PH plummeted to 6 (my tap water ph starts off at about 8.4 but settles to about 7.2-7.6 after it gasses out for a few hours and that's what my tank's PH is). I've been soaking the piece for 5 days now since I bought it and changing out the water 1-2x per day and the PH is still dropping significantly. The odd thing is that the water is clear: no brown water that would suggest tannins. Could the piece be leeching tannins even though the water isn't brown? If not, why is the PH dropping so much? Will it eventually stop or should I give up? From what I've read, DW shouldn't be dropping my PH this much this fast, so I'm not sure what's going on. A photo of the piece is below (I've since removed the "base" the piece came with thinking perhaps that was causing the PH drop but it isn't; the DW also sinks on its own without the base).

I do have a pice of DW in the tank now (purchased online) but am not sure what type of wood it is. It did leech tannins for a couple of days but then stopped and I did not notice any significant PH drops at the time (although I was fishless cycling when I put it in the tank but was testing PH regularly). My water is pretty soft; GH is 3 and KH is 2.

Any thoughts?

 

[onidrase]

That driftwood is absolutely beautiful, i have to say. I'd love to have something like that in my tank

I'm not sure if the driftwood's effect on the pH ever dies out, but I have some doubts on that.

 

[ripil]

+1 yeah that is a very nice piece. my lfs don't do driftwood at all. cant help ya on your question though sorry. good luck.

 

[Hunterprey]

Very nice driftwood! I've never tried it myself, but I believe putting some crushed corals in your filter will help raise your PH Im thinking with the right amount of crushed corals your PH should increase just enough. I'd wait tho for other people's suggestions.

Its better to have a stable PH and have the fish adapt to it than have fluctuations on PH.

 

[librarygirl]

Thanks everyone! It is a gorgeous piece and I'm dying to use it but I'm losing faith. I do have a small amount of crushed coral in my filter now to buffer my water. Because the piece is so large though and would take up a good size of my tank (20 gal) I'm worried the crushed coral wouldn't be enough to buffer it and even if it did I'm not sure I want to totally rely on it to keep my PH stable with fish in the tank. I'm soaking it in an 18 gal tub which I've kept mostly full and I've even added some crushed coral to the tub to try to mimick the tank's environment but the PH plummeted anyway. Whether that's because the CC didn't work or whether it was less effective due to being in still water without flow I'm not sure, but I'd like to try to get it more stable before attempting to put it into the tank.

I tried pouring boiling water on it too but it didn't work, at least not the one time I tried it. Because it's a large piece I have to boil several small pots and dump it in the tub. I've read of some "tricks" to try to get DW to leech tannins faster like using baking soda, has anyone tried this? Can DW leech tannins without them coloring the water? I've read some pieces need to be soaked for at least a month if not longer......just not sure if/when I should give up.

I really want to use this piece but I don't want to kill my fish either. Thanks everyone. If anyone has any further insight or tips please do let me know.

 

[onidrase]

Thanks everyone! It is a gorgeous piece and I'm dying to use it but I'm losing faith. I do have a small amount of crushed coral in my filter now to buffer my water. Because the piece is so large though and would take up a good size of my tank (20 gal) I'm worried the crushed coral wouldn't be enough to buffer it and even if it did I'm not sure I want to totally rely on it to keep my PH stable with fish in the tank. I'm soaking it in an 18 gal tub which I've kept mostly full and I've even added some crushed coral to the tub to try to mimick the tank's environment but the PH plummeted anyway. Whether that's because the CC didn't work or whether it was less effective due to being in still water without flow I'm not sure, but I'd like to try to get it more stable before attempting to put it into the tank.

I tried pouring boiling water on it too but it didn't work, at least not the one time I tried it. Because it's a large piece I have to boil several small pots and dump it in the tub. I've read of some "tricks" to try to get DW to leech tannins faster like using baking soda, has anyone tried this? Can DW leech tannins without them coloring the water? I've read some pieces need to be soaked for at least a month if not longer......just not sure if/when I should give up.

I really want to use this piece but I don't want to kill my fish either. Thanks everyone. If anyone has any further insight or tips please do let me know.

you can put coral sand on the bottom of the tank too. There's another kind of sand called aragonite or something I believe that people use in African cichlid tanks to buffer the pH to 8 or so. I'm not sure if it effects other parts of the water, but it does buffer the pH. I'd look it up to make sure it doesn't have any other effects which may be unwanted.

if you don't currently have fish, or have a place to put the fish while you mess with this, try balancing the coral/sand and driftwood to get a pH close to your tap water's pH. As said above, it's better to have a less desired pH than to have a fluctuating pH, it stresses the fish out to have it going up and down constantly.

EDIT: Also, like I said, I don't know if the pH lowering effects of the driftwood ever die out, I have my doubts. People often use driftwood for the purpose of lowing the pH for fish that prefer that 6 or 5.5.

 

[librarygirl]

Thanks everyone! It is a gorgeous piece and I'm dying to use it but I'm losing faith. I do have a small amount of crushed coral in my filter now to buffer my water. Because the piece is so large though and would take up a good size of my tank (20 gal) I'm worried the crushed coral wouldn't be enough to buffer it and even if it did I'm not sure I want to totally rely on it to keep my PH stable with fish in the tank. I'm soaking it in an 18 gal tub which I've kept mostly full and I've even added some crushed coral to the tub to try to mimick the tank's environment but the PH plummeted anyway. Whether that's because the CC didn't work or whether it was less effective due to being in still water without flow I'm not sure, but I'd like to try to get it more stable before attempting to put it into the tank.

I tried pouring boiling water on it too but it didn't work, at least not the one time I tried it. Because it's a large piece I have to boil several small pots and dump it in the tub. I've read of some "tricks" to try to get DW to leech tannins faster like using baking soda, has anyone tried this? Can DW leech tannins without them coloring the water? I've read some pieces need to be soaked for at least a month if not longer......just not sure if/when I should give up.

I really want to use this piece but I don't want to kill my fish either. Thanks everyone. If anyone has any further insight or tips please do let me know.

you can put coral sand on the bottom of the tank too. There's another kind of sand called aragonite or something I believe that people use in African cichlid tanks to buffer the pH to 8 or so. I'm not sure if it effects other parts of the water, but it does buffer the pH. I'd look it up to make sure it doesn't have any other effects which may be unwanted.

if you don't currently have fish, or have a place to put the fish while you mess with this, try balancing the coral/sand and driftwood to get a pH close to your tap water's pH. As said above, it's better to have a less desired pH than to have a fluctuating pH, it stresses the fish out to have it going up and down constantly.

EDIT: Also, like I said, I don't know if the pH lowering effects of the driftwood ever die out, I have my doubts. People often use driftwood for the purpose of lowing the pH for fish that prefer that 6 or 5.5.

Thanks for trying to help, I appreciate it. I have an extra filter lying around I never used (a cheap Whisper I think) that I'm going to run inside the tub that the DW is soaking in and put some CC into the filter and see if that makes a difference before I try something more drastic.