driftwood and discus

[emster1]

I have 6 discus and two large pieces of driftwood that have been in my aquarium for a year. I was cleaning and noticed that i can rub off dark brown color from the driftwood. Is this the tanin? Thanks

[Honey Badger 1]

No, tanin is the color that leaches out when you first put the driftwood in the tank. That is more likely the wood itself, soft because it has been in water for so long, or bio-film that has collected on the wood.

[Lady Hobbs]

I have thrown my wood in the bathtub and gone after it with a scrub brush a time or two. It rinses off black. Haul a piece of wood out of the bottom of the river and it looks the same.

[emster1]

is it ok to still keep in the tank?

[3dees]

I have tons of manzanita in my tank and take it all out for a good scrubing about once every six months. I have low lighting and no plants so not much of an algae problem. don't think you will have a problem, but it would probably be best to clean them every now and then.

[emster1]

there is no sign of algae, or "fuzz". Only thing is when i took cloth to it to dry it off the cloth had dark brown that kept wiping off.

[~firefly~]

I would think it is just a layer of softened wood slime aka decomposing wood. I wouldn't worry about it.

[MuckyFish]

Take a look at the discus encirinment in the wild, edges of amazon rivers with lots of roots and drift wood. I wouldn't worry and I probably would take it out to clean.

If you have / had a bristle nose Pleco in the tank I would expect them to consume a lot of that soft wood.

[Crispy]

don't worry about it, thats decomposing wood and called "awfuchs'. it's full of good microscopic life. a plecos fav to munch on.

[MuckyFish]

My post above was meant to say I 'would not take it out to clean'. +1 Crispy.