Bogwood/grapewood

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.

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While it is true that all wood rots, the softer a wood is, the quicker
it will rot. Remember that rotting wood is giving off pollutants and
while plecos will eat some of the more badly decomposing areas of
wood.... that same wood is still giving off dissolved organic wastes
that the plecos can't consume. If it builds up, it can severely foul
your tank. If the wood is nice and dense, it gives off these wastes at
a much slower rate. I usually don't recommend sealing wood either.
Due to the porosity of most wood, it's almost impossible to acheive a
complete seal with no microscopic gaps in the sealant.... this allows
water in, but doesn't allow for any sort of flow/exchange.... if the
water gets in through a small hole in the urethane and just sits there,
I've found that it causes the wood to putrify and it cultures anaerobic
bacteria. On top of that, I've heard numerous complaints of plecos and
other fish dying from ingesting bits of urethane/lacquer. Grapewood is
a fairly soft wood and I've found that it does not last terribly long
in most any tank before it becomes really soft and spongy.

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

Elaine T Spaketh Thusly:

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.
Imagine what it would look like if you weren't running it through carbon!

Did you soak it first? I've had best results by tossing it in a 5 gal bucket
and changing all the water once or twice a day for a few weeks - until it
sinks on its own. Not with Mopani, but other woods. Kept a rock on top
initially to hold it down. The water was REALLY dark at first, but was
noticably better after a week or 10 days. When it finally made it to the tank
it darkened the water but a little carbon (about a half cup in my Magnum)
cleared it up and kept it clear.
Now that I think of it, this was wood I dug up myself, so I added a little
bleach the first few times to sterilize it and used very hot water. It
lightened the already light areas, but didn't affect the darker ones.

--
Bill H. [my "reply to" address is real]
www.necka.net
Molon Labe!

Bill wrote:
Elaine T Spaketh Thusly:


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.

Imagine what it would look like if you weren't running it through carbon!

Did you soak it first? I've had best results by tossing it in a 5 gal bucket
and changing all the water once or twice a day for a few weeks - until it
sinks on its own. Not with Mopani, but other woods. Kept a rock on top
initially to hold it down. The water was REALLY dark at first, but was
noticably better after a week or 10 days. When it finally made it to the tank
it darkened the water but a little carbon (about a half cup in my Magnum)
cleared it up and kept it clear.
Now that I think of it, this was wood I dug up myself, so I added a little
bleach the first few times to sterilize it and used very hot water. It
lightened the already light areas, but didn't affect the darker ones.

--
Bill H. [my "reply to" address is real]
www.necka.net
Molon Labe!

Well, I soaked it for 2 weeks with daily water changes. The first
couple of days I got very dark water, then a medium color for the rest
of the two weeks. I Googled for info and most people said Mopani can
leach tannins for months. I'm not worried about it; the fish I have
should actually prefer those conditions. If the water gets too dark for
plants despite the carbon in my Aquaclear, I'll add more carbon by using
an air-driven box filter.

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

Elaine T Spaketh Thusly:

Well, I soaked it for 2 weeks with daily water changes. The first
couple of days I got very dark water, then a medium color for the rest
of the two weeks. I Googled for info and most people said Mopani can
leach tannins for months. I'm not worried about it; the fish I have
should actually prefer those conditions. If the water gets too dark for
plants despite the carbon in my Aquaclear, I'll add more carbon by using
an air-driven box filter.
Ahhhh, same method as me, same results.
Same "not worried about it" attitude, too.
Sure we're not related? ;-)

--
Bill H. [my "reply to" address is real]
www.necka.net
Molon Labe!