hey everyone just a short question.
ive been told by a few people that driftwood turns your water yellow.
is this true?

Not necessarily yellow...it will leech tanic acid (tannis) into the water which can stain it a tea like color. This will eventually dissipate with time and regular water changes, isn't harmful at all, and actually can be beneficial for certain environments.

You can boil the driftwood and soak it beforehand to reduce the leeching. I've used grape root before and currently have 2 pieces of mopani in mine and never had any problem with discoloration personally (although I actually think it looks pretty cool to be honest), and boiled them for about 5 or 6 hours a day for 3 or 4 days with soaking overnight. Many will soak it for weeks to months, although I wasn't about to wait that long. I believe carbon will also aid in removing it, although if you don't use carbon I wouldn't think it would be enough of a reason to start.


The biggest concern with driftwood imo is choosing a type that will not rot (or actually will only do so only very, very slowly).

I like Mopani the best as it seems to last the longest and sinks much quicker. Other types will float for awhile until it has become thoroughly soaked, and even then it can still be a problem necessitating an anchor of some sort.

driftwood is actually a type of metal which will kill your fish very soon.

remove the driftwood(led) immediately

oscars rule wrote:


I have asked you not to post deliberate misleading information. your accent will be remove from the site. :angry: OFL.com will not tolerate people like you.

oscar rule please piss off and grow up

Johnny is right on... I have driftwood in the tank with no problems. You do have to soak it and/or boil it. My pieces were too big to boil so they soaked in a big bucket for 2 weeks. It is hard to wait that long but worth it! The key to the soaking it to keep changing the water out. I did every other day. This removes anything floating and the brown color the water turns.

i found a piece the other day near the beach, cleaned it up, havent gotten round to boiling it yet to see how it goes. looks nice though, hopefully it will work well!

good luck with ur search if you wish to go down that track.

Shinc wrote:


I think it's not worth the risk of contaminating your tank with unwanted substances that may be on or in a found piece of driftwood, Shinc.
Plus you have to be sure it will not rot away when put into the tank.
Not all kinds of wood are suitable for fishtanks.
Better to be safe than sorry.

Hey noddy, gunna take it into fish shop and see if they know what type of wood it is, only then would I contemplate it! Thanks 4 ur concern

smart move.
My lfs sells the wood per kilogram and it's not that expensive.
and the biggest log i found on a secondhand site ,for 25 euros, and found it in my hometown...



I love driftwood,and have it in all my tanks, even in my brackish tank, allthough i'm not sure if it will last in salty water.

its expensive here, nice sized bits go for hundreds, its annoying