magosaurus

I have acquired several pieces of old drift wood. Probably pine or cedar but not sure. The scratch and sniff test reveals no smell. A couple of pieces are about 5' long. I'm wondering if the pH could be affected and cause a problem. I have a 120 gal tank with 9 cichlids, 2 clown loaches and 3 plecos. Current PH is 8.0.

Shawnie

driftwood usually lowers ph if it has tannis in it..pine is not good as it will leach sap into the tank ....heres a good link you can get more info on it if you need

Driftwood Notes

aquarist48

Driftwood Do's & Don'ts
Here is another link for you to check out.
Ken

magosaurus

Thanx for the replies. After reading Driftwood Notes, I'm still not sure since the wood seems to be very well aged; no smell at all.

Quote from Driftwood Notes "I personally recommend that you stay away from softwoods ie: Pines and Cedars. They have pungent oils and [b]if it hasn't cured for years[b], not sure how the leaching out would effect your plants and fish...Old dried, bleached driftwood is hard to identify...if in doubt you can scrape below the bleached areas and smell it.. the beautiful red cedars keep the odor(oils) a long time."

I would really like to use this wood since it has good hiding places... :/

peacemaker92

Hi Maggie. I'm not sure about using cedar or pinewood but most driftwoods, they use really hot water to sterilize the wood for days. They also use special bleach to bleach out the stuff on the wood that's dangerous to fish and plants in the tank. For my 55g, I used hot water to sterilize my 2 driftwoods for a day or two. And now I have plants and fish in there and they're doing fine. But your wood is a different story, so I'm not sure. But good luck! Hope to see pictures soon.

magosaurus

I appreciate the replies. I was beginning to wonder if this site still existed. I haven't been able to get on for several days. I'm not going to risk it; better to be safe than sorry. I've had my share of bad luck with tanks in the last few months. Guess I'll stick to LFS decorations. Do you know of a good site for identifying fish. All except one of the 14 have been given to me and I'm clueless.

peacemaker92

Fish ID? How about just asking some of our members here in the Fish ID section in the forum. A lot of great help you can get there.