Ornaments

[Sunny.C]

Hey guys what kind of ornaments look good in a community??? Should i put some wood in to drop my ph a little, my tap water is at 7.6 ph ....

 

[Bloo]

7.6 is absolutely fine and I wouln't worry about it at all. Though some wood might slowly bring it down to 7.4 or possibly 7.2 - depending on your other water parameters.

 

[Undawada]

Should i put some wood in to drop my ph a little

Firstly, your PH is perfectly fine. Don't do anything to change it, just keep it stable. Bogwood will only reduce your PH by a very small amount, probably nothing measurable at all if your tank is big.

Get wood, ornaments or plants that you like, not ones that will change your PH.

 

[Bloo]

Just for the record, I'd like to add that 2 pieces of large wood (one bogwood and one mopani) dropped my PH from 8.2 to 7.8 over a period of a few months - in a 50 gallon tank. With a GH of 20 and a KH of 11.

 

[Undawada]

That's odd for such a high KH. I never had a change in PH from wood in my tanks, either 24 gallon or 75.

I may just be lucky, or the wood doesn't have as much tannins in it.

 

[@ombomb]

I have a couple of terracotta flower pots, some pieces of bog wood and some pieces of green slate which I got from the landscape garden section of my local garden centre for £2.99. Everything loves the bogwood, especially the plecs and the slate is very nice to look and provides plenty of little hiding places.

Just remember to give everything a good soak before adding it to your tank, bogwood may discolour the water slightly for a while even with soaking, but this will clear after a couple of water changes.

 

[Bloo]

Yes I was rather shocked to say the least. I introduced CO2 in my one tank a few weeks ago and it dropped from 8.2 to 7.4 in a couple of days - not at all what I was expecting

But sorry, that's diverging from the topic - I just thought I would indicate what happened in my tank when I introduced wood.

 

[Undawada]

I'd like to add that 2 pieces of large wood dropped my PH from 8.2 to 7.8 over a period of a few months in a 50 gallon tank

A drop from 8.2 to 7.8 over a few months wouldn't hurt your fish at all. That gradual a change, wouldn't even register with the fish. It is good to note that the change occurred, though.

Wood, plants and artificial ornaments won't change your PH enough to worried about. Be careful with rocks and substrate, though.

 

[Sunny.C]

Well i only have a bristle nose in there and the moment i will get my wood and plants before i add anything else.

 

[hellohefalump]

In my tank I have slate, wood, live plants, rocks, one small hollow wood style ornament and various sizes of terracotta pots. One of my fish, a zebra loach, has made a very small but interesting looking cave by burrowing into the sand under a bit of moss and a bit of wood. I also have a shell in there... before anyone says anything about this, I want to say it's been in the tank for YEARS and no ill effects - i'm not saying all shells are safe though, i've just been lucky. One of my loaches has claimed it as his home.

 

[Sunny.C]

got a pic of your tank? What is a slate?

 

[Undawada]

Slate is a flat rock you usually find drifwood attached to it, or you can get it by itself. Slate looks a lot like sandstone and other sedimentary rocks, so be careful if you are not getting it from a fish store.