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I recently bought a small piece of driftwood for my 26 gallon tank. I did so because someone posted that it was important to have one for a BN which I just put in the tank.

Before I put it in, is there anything that I should be concerned about??

Like will it change my water parameters?
Is it bad for any of my other fish?
Does the wood have any elements that will make the water cloudy, smell, etc??

I'd appreciate any ideas.

driftwood contains tanin, and where it's not bad for your tank it can turn the water brown. to avoid this soak it in the cistern of tou toilet, this way the tanin will leech out and be rinsed away often.

Soak it in a large bucket for quiet some time... weeks... rinsing the water, until the desired amount of tanins or (The brown water) is gone.

Or you can take a large pot with water, and boil it for about... well I don't remember how long, some people say a couple hours others say 24 hours.

g-luck!

And yes, even after you "treat" the wood it can sometimes still have effects on your water, mainly the pH I believe, it will lower it, or make it a bit more acidic.

As others have stated, the tannins that leach out of your driftwood will turn your water a weak tea colour, depending on the driftwood you choose. if you get the driftwood that's light in colour and is already attached to a piece of slate, the tinting of the water will be minimal. All you need to do is rinse and give a light scrub to these pieces under some running hot water. If you pick up some of the heavier, darker chunks of water that are all natural and are darker in colour, you'll have more of a tinting.

This tinting is not harmful to fish, most actually like it and some require it for spawning, but may be asthetically unappealing to the owner. If you wish to avoid this, as stated earlier, you will need to either soak it with daily water changes or boil and then soak, or better yet a combo of the two.

If you don't mind the colour, fresh carbon will help keep it down, and as stated earlier, it will lower you pH slightly. Once the tannins stop leaching, the pH will rise again slightly.

Driftwood rocks

Yes, but I will say, you don't want your water looking QUIET like this after adding the wood in lol.

http://angel.pwnd.org/fish/tank1212034.jpg

http://angel.pwnd.org/fish/tank1212032.jpg

aww, that's classic amazon river black water man!!

yep. My way of preping driftwood is boil, rinse, sit, repeat.

I always treat the Driftwood / Bogwood with warm water for a few days & then leave it in cold water & daily changing the water so i'll get rid of the Tannins that leach out. After repeating this procedure for a few times, i'll put the Driftwood / Bogwood in the tank with no problems.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

I boil it for about 4 hours and then soak it for a day. If you have problems getting it to sink, you should repeat those steps or just leave it soaking for a long time.

I have lots of driftwood in my tank. Got very frustrated doing water changes so I could actually see the fish. Found a product called Purigen, it's a sache you put into filter like carbon. Within 24hrs my 4foot tank was chrystal clear. I actually prefer a slight colouring so I only put sache in when water is getting dark. The sache can also be regenerated quite easily, so you don't have to keep purchasing new ones.