Grape Vine

[tara]

Has anyone used Grape vine or Grape roots in your tanks? Is it ok to use?

[Phlipper]

Nup, cant say as I've used them, but many shops are selling them for that purpose so I guess they must be OK, taking into consideration the standard soaking time to leech out resins etc. Not so sure about the actual vine branches ?..........but the roots are pretty gnarly looking and would have a great effect......go for it. 8-)

[Ben]

Will it sink?

[tara]

I will let you know Ben, it is soaking at the moment.

[k9outfit]

Grape vine eventually with time, will sink. Personally though, I kind of like the semi-sunk look myself, where it's more in a vertical position, and doesn't reach the bottom of the tank. Seems to me someone mentioned that eventually it does get quite soft and starts to come apart - haven't had mine in water long enough to have that happen. Also, between the Mopanni (sp?) & grape vine (the 2 types of wood I feel comfortable using), my water got a very dark brown for quite some time. Not sure which wood was actually responsible though.

[ashley]

Has anyone tried eucalypt of any kind

I currently have a piece that seems ok, I know for sure that it was sitting out in the weather a long time before it was picked up.

How ever I think it may still be effecting my PH, perhaps leaching acids of some description.

Any thoughts Guys?

Ashley

[Phlipper]

Eucalypt is good, but so long as it's really really old, virtually all my aquarium wood is Eucalypt of some type, mostly out of nearby swamps.
It tends to be very hard and needs soaking for a long time to leech out all the resins and tannins. Some people use old Mallee stumps in their tanks, and I even have an old fence post in one tank that is really weather beaten and gnarly looking.