Is it healthy to add wood to a cichlid tank?

oscar 006 · 09-24-2007, 12:15 PM

I was at the fish store yesterday and the guy there was telling me to get the piece of wood out of my tank that I put in last week. he said that the wood would bring my PH down and would kill my fish. Does anyone know if this is true? I did take a ph reading yesterday and it was at about 7.9 - 8 so I took out the new piece. I also wanted to know if adding PH up will harm my fish?

gm333 · 09-24-2007, 05:29 PM

It will soften the water, but will not kill your fish. If you are worried about the ph and hardness getting to low add some buffer to keep the params up. I kept large pieces of driftwood in my African tank with no problems.

cichlidgirl · 09-24-2007, 09:37 PM

I also keep wood in my tanks, the ph can drop slightly especially if you dont do your normal water changes each week. (the tannins build up and lower ph a little and it can tint your water slightly brown(tint not cloud, depending on how big the wood is it could be from barely noticable to tea colored but your water clarity will still be clear. If it clouds it and develops a slimy white coating on it and your glass , dont panick it just means it was not seasoned the right way, just drop it in a pan of boiling water for a couple hours and it will stop that, season the wood and if you did not like the tint it will also make alot of the tannin leach out in the boiling water instead of your tank, kind of like a tea bag after it boils for awhile it stops steeping). Just montitor your ph and if it stays in the 7.8 and up range you should be fine in my opionion. There are certain fish that might want extremely high ph but im not aware of which ones they are but others on this website would be. Watch your fish if they dont look happy that is a good indication they dont like something.