low PH because of drift wood good for supershrimp?

[dilandau]

so I'm starting up a tank! went shopping for all the supplies and i also found some drift wood for sale and thought it would look great. i didn't plan on drift wood, i was going to buy some ceramic fake wood decor but the drift wood had a nice, natural look to them, was cheaper, had tons of hiding spots, and i thought algae would cling well to them.

any way, so 3 days after getting the tank set up, the wood had leeched so much brown and yellow into the water that i could not see to the other side and the water smelled like wood. i e-mailed the guys and they tell me that this is normal and it was actually good, stating "The stain is known as Tannins and this is released by the wood. This is very good for aquarium creatures that enjoy a low pH. The tannins are a natural way of lowering pH."

that being said, is this healthy to supershrimp?(opae ula)

i do plan on cleaning the water out. i don't mind some staining but this is a bit much and it's easier to clean it now that i still don't have any animals in it.

also, for people who want to have natural drift wood in the tank, i was told: "some hobbyist do not enjoy the yellow/brown stain on the water. To avoid this, the wood is typically boiled for a couple hours to forcefully remove all the tannins. That plus a Purigen treatment makes the water crystal clear."

thanks!

[JoanToBa]

I just a beginner, but i had a piece of cholla wood, it was boiled for half an hour (it wasn't too big, just 8 inches long and pretty thin) and it was then placed in the aquarium.
Of course, there was staining in the water (which at first, I didn't know it would happen) and I hated it! After it being in there for about a week, it made the water white and cloudy, I tested the PH and found out it was too low. Opae need a water PH of more or less 8. Later, I added a cladophora ball. A week or two later, I removed the marimo because mustafa told me it looked like it was decaying.
At the end I only left the volcanic live rock (all hitchhikers where removed ar died in the cycling process) and went for a minimal but really neat look.
Now I'm waiting for shrimp to reproduce.

[i<3Opae]

I had driftwood in my tank initially. It did pollute the tank water, and no amounts of water change will stop the tannins from leaking out unless you boil it (untested). I was trying to figure out why my tank wasn’t reproducing so I took the advice from folks and took them out. I don’t think it’s either bad or good for the shrimp. Water is still not crystal clear, but I prefer it now.

[dilandau]

UPDATE!
so i have ditched the whole drift wood thing.
after reviewing all the info on the supershrimp site and what they have told me at the shop, i have decided that its way to much of a hassle to have wood then it would be if i would have just had ceramic decor.

i have boiled the wood for 2 days with 12L of water for hours!!! and the tannin's still leach. the guys at the store had told me that no matter how much you boil the wood, it will still affect the PH and will lower it over time. if i had a filter, i can use a product called purigen in the filtration unit which will make the water crystal clear and the filter itself will keep the water ph more controlled and remove any trace of tannin's BUT since you don't need one for the shrimp this would mean manually testing and regulating the PH .....in the end, the added work and the amount of money i would have to invest just to keep the wood in the tank was a bit ridiculous.

my advice, k.i.s.s. (keep it simple, stupid) skip the drift wood and stick to the list that is provided in the website.

as for the wood, my family has been wanting to have a fish tank maybe next year and i guess we can use it then as keeping fish will absolutely need a filtration unit and there are fish that can tolerate far lower PH then the shrimp.

thank for your help everyone, errr ... both of you ... lol

[JoanToBa]

Sweet!

[mike.d]

I'm with you. I love the look of driftwood in a tank. (That's a really nice piece, by the way.) But it's not for opae'ula.

In a regular fish/shrimp tank, the tannins will subside with water changes. It takes a while. I want to say 3-6 months with weekly/bi-weekly 25% water changes. That was with no Purigen, just a basic air pump/sponge filter.

If you like that look, check out "blackwater aquarium" on Google. Some are really nice.

[Mustafa]

I don't recommend driftwood or leaves or anything organic that could decay easily in a Supershrimp tank. My experience is that it affects the water and them negatively.