Question about wood for L397 tank

[pleconut]

Hi folks I ordered some wood via mail order for the tank containing my group of L397s when it arrived i found it was damp so i questioned if it has maybe come from another fish tank. I always try to get wood that has never been used in a fish tank (although once it's dry it's hard to tell). My obvious concern is if it's been used in a tank with an outbreak of disease and my concern is that i don't want to risk introduction of anything to the tank. Is there a way I can treat it to prevent any potential disease it may be harbouring. Ie boiling drying it out etc. Thanks in advance.

[bekateen]

Boiling or drying is what I do. Drying may not be as effective this time of year due to temperatures, so maybe boiling is easier now.

Cheers, Eric

[pleconut]

Thanks, Will make sure it's boiled (well!) before it goes in.

[Mol_PMB]

Boiling also tends to soften the wood, which is bad for permanent hard scape but good for a Panaqolus tank

[pleconut]

Thanks for the info so wood may need replacing sooner. That's if they don't eat it first.

[bekateen]

Thanks for the info so wood may need replacing sooner. That's if they don't eat it first.

Yeah, but there really shouldn't be a rush on this. I've used some of the same wood pieces in my clown pleco tank since I started it one year ago, and some of those pieces came out of older tanks I was already running. All my wood pieces, when small enough, get boiled before use, so don't fear the possibility that you need to get new wood every few months.

And my community tank, which doesn't have any plecos, has some wood pieces in it that are up to three years old, and those were boiled before use also. Although I'm sure some woods break down faster than others, they don't break down that fast, so you should be fine for a while, in my experience (unless I'm doing something wrong and I don't realize it ).

One reason to change them sooner might be that you want the wood to condition the water. That, in my experience, declines relatively quickly with age. So if you're looking to your wood to change your water chemistry, or give you the "blackwater" look, then yeah, you may need to change the wood much more often.

Cheers, Eric

[pleconut]

Trying to avoid the blackwater effect, although when the wood is first added it's inevitable if you have lots of it as i do. So I've started off with a more than sufficient amount but adding as i go. I've now got the parameters at reasonably soft water and at a ph of 7.2,but it's taken ages, and without going down the RO direction, but this means now i will have to pre-prepare sufficient tapwater, very hard and ph of 8, in a separate container for those large water changes.