Your Guide to Aquarium Driftwood - What You Need to Know!

Hello Everyone,
In this video we talk about aquarium driftwood and the advantages and disadvantages of each type. We will also discuss driftwood types that are not safe for your aquarium.

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[PrimeTimeAquatics]

Here are the video referenced in this video:




For the latest short form content check us out on:
Instagram: primetime_aquatics
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[ragingcalmness]

I personally use grapevine wood regularly since I have access to it, I cut it when it's well fed and hardened at the end of the season before snow starts, then I dry it in my 0% RH home lol. It is true that it has a lot of nutrient release which is rapid, and I still reccomend it to certain people that know what they are doing. I have used it often in free floating algae tanks that have a healthy/established mass of algae in the water, what common folks call "green water". Not all green water is equal, some varieties are way superior in terms of performance for fish tanks. It is very hard to sustain green water unless the water is rich in nutrients and it also keeps water pretty nice, possibly the only thing I have seen able to keep up with bigger bioloads if nuked with light. When I used it, most of its use was when I had an abundance of otocinclus and it saved them for me, they lived full lives and even got reintegrated in other aquariums over time. Don't use the leaves unless you enjoy lots of debris in your aquarium, when they start breaking down, my legion of shrimp will make leaves dissapear within a day, but I don't have many rapid root feeders in my aquariums so I stopped using leaves because most of it ends in excess. Also the wood itself while it has a cool initial appearance it will begin peeling around 6-9 months depending on water parameters and if you have fish that munch on wood. Hope this helps people, but the grapevine wood is not for aquascaping in aquariums like he said in the video, it s more of a food source if properly used.

[pegmountney]

I have a 50 gallon. When I got back into the hobby & set the tank up I fell in love with an enormous & beautiful piece of grapewood. Ultimately, I set my entire tank up around it. I did a 3 month fishless cycle on start up so fortunately didn't suffer any ill effects with fish. It's been a year now & albeit, the wood looks stunning in the tank it is full of BBA & mulm that the shrimp won't even eat & when I scrape it off, I peel quite a bit of the surface away. I'm not sure how it's affecting the fish, they seem happy. If I had it to do over again though, i wouldn't have used it & am still disappointed that the LFS I purchased it from was more than happy to sell it to me for $90 CAD & our other LFS also supported using it in an aquarium.

[nonabnormal]

Great video, I haven't seen this much wood content in one place.

[marinejosh]

The Bonsai is beautiful and worth the price for a nano for sure

[wesknights]

Unbelievable. I've literally added some grapevine today having soaked it for 3 days and the tannins having faded. Everything just went wrong within a few hours. Then your video popped up.
Thank you for helping me through. Unbelievable timing!!
I've honestly never known anything to be more problematic in my life, from being unbelievably buoyant, to it clouding the water and stripping it of oxygen within the hour. So thankful I have another couple of tanks as the livestock had to come out. Such a shame as it's a beautiful wood. But it's going straight in the bin! 15:52

[rct]

Mopani is my favorite and it is in most of my tanks. I soak it for about a week in water bucket if I don't want to deal with heavy tannins.

[VinzClorthokeymasterofGozer]

One of the things I learned recently is to be careful of the source of your driftwood if you source it locally. Our local rivers (Illinois, Mississippi, and Missouri rivers) have fairly high mercury. High enough that you shouldn't eat fish that you catch from there. The wood will absorb the mercury, too. Be careful out there.

[kellielibera]

perfect timing for this video! It's like you read my mind! Thanks

[Whips_World]

I know so many fish keepers who are proud of the fact that they dont pay for hardscape. They sumply go out and find it in nature. I'm with you, though. I just don't think the risk of introducing gawd only kbows what into what is, by comparison, pristine water. Not that my water is pristine. Im on rexord as saying its some of the worst water in the fishfam. Still, at least what IS in my water, I know what it is and how to, mostly, work around it. I dont need to add to my water challenges with the unknown as well.

[MWilk]

I almost bought a large beautiful piece of grape wood and then I remembered this video. Got a pair of very nice large ghost wood branches instead. Thank you!

[bigtimebarbecue]

That was a cool video!😊 aquariums are beautiful Thank you👍🏻

[GrowMoreVeggies]

Wohoo longer video ftw! Thank you professor primetime! It's wild, the lessons we learn during the aquarium experience. I had no idea about grapevine and can only imagine the stress from putting that in a new tank at Aquashella no less.

[sewerrat]

Its always intresting how different areas are. Never even heard of Malaysian driftwood. Mopani, spider and cholla are very common in my area.

[stevep]

Spiderwood isn't even wood, technically. It's roots from large azalea plants. That's what makes it look so interesting.

[marcogalvez]

Excelente video! Yo soy un fanatico de la madera natural sumergida en los acuarios y uso los mismos criterios que tu explicas muy bien en este tutorial. Felicitaciones y sigan asi!! Ahhh otra cosa. Gracias a tus publicaciones, me terminé de convencer que los filtos de esponja son la mejor solución para el filtrado de una acuario jejej.
Un gran abrazo y saludos desde Chile, Sudamérica.

[TakeliMMagdalen]

Useful video...maybe some dragon wood would be a good addition, like dragon stone, lots of nooks and crannies to help baby fish etc or to anchor plants into, it would appear...haven't yet used it myself.

[lruddy]

mopani is my favourit wood to keep in my fishroom even if its not in tanks, most pieces will sink right away or very quickly it looks awesome and it has a lot of tannins in there but doesnt release them right away and is more slowly then some other woods i let mopani wood sit in a bucket of water with some snails and duck weed and use that tannin filled water for some of my tanks, small piece sitting in a bucket can give you over a months worth of lower pH black water and my clown plecos love it

[toddbigeasy]

I was in Houston through the holidays and bought a HUGE piece for my 110 at the most awesome aquarium store I’ve ever seen!

[JDfantoo]

Spiderwood and Mopani wood are in every single tank I have. Love them both. A word of caution I would add about Cholla wood...fish can get stuck in them. I lost a beautiful Betta that way. They go in one of the ends, and can't get out. It was heartbreaking. I wish more people knew that. So I don't really buy it anymore for that reason.