Review on 🌳 Enhance your Aquatic Habitat with Zoo Med's Mopani Wood - Natural and Authentic by Steve Hauck

The pieces of wood that have been preserved look very attractive in my planted aquariums and give them a special character. As others have pointed out, the wood leaches the tannins into the water for quite a while, giving it various tea tones. How dark the tea's appearance will depend on how much you can pull out before sticking the piece of wood into the aquarium. I simmered and simmered small pieces all day, changing the water in between, until the "tea brew" was significantly clearer. I put a large piece, too big to put in a kettle, in a new water-filled bin and left it in the sun for a couple of weeks and it was worth the extra effort. Any tannins that were still in the wood were eventually absorbed by the charcoal in my filters when I added pieces of driftwood to my aquariums. They say that tanning agents do not harm the fish and in my case they are absolutely right. My fish didn't seem to mind the temporarily colored water at all, but the aquarium water would be quite dark if I didn't boil and/or soak the pieces first.