i have had this medium sized piece of driftwood in my tank 3 months now and i still have to keep it weighted down with a rock. will the damn thing ever stay submerged on its own? sheez!! how long will i be waiting??

you could try boiling it, that will open up the pores, but then tannis might come out, what kind of driftwood is it,i use mopani,

Silicone the bottom of it to two pieces of plastic...and bury the plastic underneath your substrate...

My biggest problem at the moment is trying to get my driftwood to stop leaching tannins...dont know what more i can do...

After buying the wood...i soaked it in my tub overnight...scrubbed it the following day. Placed it in my community tank and the bastards started leaching! lol

Of course the neons loved it...they only swam around the left side of my tank (area where the wood were). Now i got them into a bucket and filling it up with boiling water (one piece over 33inches long...boiling impossible) leaving it over night, throw out the water and fill again...3 days now...and still leaching.

They would look great in my oscar tank...but i seriously dont want the brown water. Any suggestions?? Or should i simply add carbon to my filters to clear the water if it still keeps leaching?

too big to boil. don't want to silicone it or nail it to a board either guess i'll just wait it out,ho hum!

patience seems to be the only option then...

when i did my large piece of driftwood i submerged it in a kiddy pool for about two weeks, changing the water every couple of days until the tanins were all released and it became waterlogged......

mine still leaches, I just figure to be patient till it stops, actually is not a bad thing to me personally, I dont mind the color, its different...lol plus my RD LOVES it!

My 90Gl comm tank only needs waterchanges once a month due to small bioload, and the water will be brownish after that month, but i like the look for it's a dim lit Pleco home as well.

That is what i have done in the past putting it in a large bucket and filling it every day with hot water every morning for a couple of weeks. U still get a little color but it soon goes....

JamieM wrote:


Hey Jamie,

Been doing the hot water/bucket thing for a few days now...still colouring which i expected. Can you however elaborate what you meant with "a couple of weeks" ? Was it like 2 weeks' every day hot water change...or more like 3 or 4 or 5?

It was a while ago yes. I Put the bit of wood in a 5 gallon bucket and filled it with really hot water every morning for 14 days roughly.

Acapella.Foxxy wrote:

There was a little bit of staing in the tank but i dont think it lasted for long though.