ironnie7i

Im new to this so help me out please...

I just bought a colombian driftwood and I dont know the whole process on how to boil it or make that brownish water color disapear..

Please let me know, thanks in advance.

Christian Patti

Soak it in a bucket of water. Keep changing the water in the bucket until it stops turning brownish and stays clear. Takes days for some driftwood and weeks for others.

ironnie7i

thanks.. but I also heard of a process that has to do with boiling the driftwood?

sirdarksol

You can boil it. This will sometimes hurry the way the water soaks into the wood (though I've never had success with this).

The brown color will disappear over time. It's nothing to be concerned about, as it's a natural product that is in almost every lake and river in the world. If you don't like how it looks, you just have to keep soaking/boiling it, changing the water periodically, until the water remains clear.

pepetj

Hi ironnie7i! Welcome to fishlore!

You can use activated charcoal to remove tannins (the brownish causing molecules) released by the driftwood (you may need to replace charcoal weekly for a while). Make sure it has no pathogens attached to it (boiling would help in that). If your fish thrive in lower pH levels that you already have ( your pH is 7.4 and you want South American Cichlids), then this will certainly be good for them, otherwise (your pH is 7.4 and you want African Cichlids), be careful since driftwood usually lowers pH a bit (not likely a real risk for a pH crash).

Pepe
Santo Domingo