The Puffer Forum

I really prefer live plants, but not in BW. I do think that the ones which will take F-8 levels are not very happy there. So i do tend to go with fakes for both 'wood" and "plants". In the USA and in Europe there are silk and softer plastic plants which actually can look quite realistic. There is no reason that I can see for using bright light on such tanks. Viewing light is all that is needed, and helps avoid algae issues. I do not like really bright tanks out in the living areas of the house - they are too dominating for me. When I ran high-light tanks,they were all tank-room setups. Along with being an old fogy, I an quite conservative on such things.

I wonder how some of the harder, more dense woods would do in BW, like mopani?

It stains the water for years. I use a lot more mopani than the softer, lighter driftwoods - all in FW only. I did try it in BW, but even several-year-old pieces from FW still restart shedding wood mass in very fine flakes (vacuums out easily, much like pleco raspings), and releasing tannins into the to the point of visibility.

It is by those actions, helping eat up KH, which to me is massive no-no in an F-8 tank where I suspect alkalinity to be highly important. I quite using it long before I did the big study on F-8s.