# Driftwood in a shrimp tank



## milalic (Aug 26, 2005)

Does any of you use driftwood in your tanks?
Why you use it? What shrimp you keep in these tanks?


Cheers,
Pedro


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## JerseyScape (Nov 18, 2005)

The last thing that I use driftwood for is decoration. Driftwood adds some tannins to the water which causes more of a natural environment plus it starts to decompose releasing more of the goodies. My driftwood also has many holes in it from various bugs that must have lived in it so the shrimp love to sit in those live crevicies.


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## Shrimp&Snails (Mar 27, 2006)

I have two smallish pieces, one is in with my amanos and the other is in my cherry shrimp tank. I wanted them for my bn plecs to chew on for their digestion and chose smaller pieces so it wouldn't impact the PH. 
I'm soaking another piece to put in my tiger shrimp tank to try and the bring the PH down a little.


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## milalic (Aug 26, 2005)

Shrimp&Snails said:


> I have two smallish pieces, one is in with my amanos and the other is in my cherry shrimp tank. I wanted them for my bn plecs to chew on for their digestion and chose smaller pieces so it wouldn't impact the PH.
> I'm soaking another piece to put in my tiger shrimp tank to try and the bring the PH down a little.


Welcome to the forum...nice to see new members jumping in and participating.
Have you guys noticed any die off of shrimp because of the driftwood. Did you soaked the driftwood and for how long?

Cheers,
Pedro


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## Shrimp&Snails (Mar 27, 2006)

milalic said:


> Welcome to the forum...nice to see new members jumping in and participating.
> Have you guys noticed any die off of shrimp because of the driftwood. Did you soaked the driftwood and for how long?
> 
> Cheers,
> Pedro


Thanks for the welcome. 

I soaked the pieces for a week, scrubbing them first with a toothbrush I keep for these purposes. During this time I boiled them twice for roughly an hour each time. Before the last boil I used normal tap water to soak them in, changing the water daily, but used dechlorinated water after the final boil. Larger pieces will take a lot longer til they sink.

I couldn't tell you if any of my cherries died solely because of the introduction of the wood because although I lost a couple of cherries they were newly bought ones. I haven't lost anymore since and the wood's still in there.


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## YuccaPatrol (Mar 26, 2006)

Pedro,

I do just about the same as S&S, but I soak for a month or so. Usually the soaking is to get the wood to sink or nearly sink since I am now using larger pieces that take longer to absorb the water.

I'll change the water in the soak tub every week or 2 and see if it stops turning the water yellow. Most of the wood I collect has been underwater for years before I find it, so there is not a lot of tannins to leach out.

My best guess is that anything unnatural and toxic would come out of the wood from the boiling and soaking over time. I did read a post where someone thinks new wood may have killed the shrimp but it did not sound like they did anything but toss some newly purchased wood into the tank.


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## Abe Froman (Mar 27, 2006)

milalic said:


> Does any of you use driftwood in your tanks?
> Why you use it? What shrimp you keep in these tanks?
> 
> Cheers,
> Pedro


I use driftwood in all of my tanks except my QT. It is used for decoration and as an anchor for moss and other plants that my shrimps love. Before adding to the tanks we take it outside and scrub it down good with a wire brush and garden hose. I use large pieces and have not had a problem with any wood floating or staining the water. Right now I have a bunch of cherry shrimp and few red nosed shrimp.


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## theteh (Jan 19, 2006)

If you look at my other thread *My Tiger has eggs*, you will see that my Tiger/Cherry shrimp tank has a piece of wood (not sure if this is bogwood or driftwood) in it and they seems to like it a lot!

I preboil the wood and then soak for several days with boiling water everyday to remove the tannin but it will still stain the water no matter how much you soak. Perhaps after 1 year in the aquarium, it will stop leaching tannins.


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