I went to one of the site's sponsor and ordered a bulk order of hardwood. Bulk order comes with one large and a few other sized pieces.

I just put together a 125gal that I am cycling without fish and it is empty except for gravel. It will not have live plants, but thought the hardwood would be a nice touch to it. I plan to get all the other stuff in it before I put fish in it.

The question I had is about the change of color to the water that occurs with the hardwood and the ph effects. Not sure how much area of my tank floor these pieces will cover, but will putting in all four pieces be too much for my tank - will the water darken too much? And since it lowers my ph, does the aggregate total of wood determine how much it lowers it or does it just affect it a little no matter the quantity of wood?

I may put in one of the small pieces into my 75gal tank.

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Here's my experience. I have a 120g tank that has one piece of the Malaysian hardwood and then two other pieces of driftwood from LFS. I boiled them and soaked them for a couple weeks and they still stained my water. The water color is personal preference. It is actually good for the fish but I didn't like it. Most people would look at the tank and ask "why is it so dirty". There is a product called Purigen that you can put in your filter and it will take away the tannins. As far as the pH goes mine did not change enough to notice a measurable difference. My pH is about 8.2 so I was hoping it would lower it but it didn't. It is actually the tannins in the water (the tea colored substance released from the wood) that lowers the pH and not the wood itself. So if you get your piece cleaned good or it doesn't stain your water then your pH won't be affected. Like I said my water was stained badly and my pH still didn't move.

I plan on 15-20% water changes whether I need it or not. I know this is essential for a stable ph vs a set value. Hopefully this will help with the color, if it is not pleasing to me. Another issue is my light for my 125g is a single bulb design. It's two bulbs, but two end to end to total 72". Will have to see if I am happy with that or not. May see if a higher wattage is available, but the lighting difference between it and my 75g (dual bulb the full length) is pretty noticeable.

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If you don't plan on having live plants then the lights won't matter. I was doing 25% water changes a week and it made no difference in the water color. The wood kept it stained.

Was referring to the light from the standpoint of the water being stained - visibility may be less so.

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