Hardscape Wood

Wood does two jobs in a planted tank. It gives the scape its lines, and it slowly changes the water — tannins, a drop in pH, a surface that grows biofilm and feeds shrimp. Which wood you pick decides how much of each you get. Here is how the types we stock actually behave once they are under water.

Manzanita

Dense, pale, finely branched, and native to the California chaparral — the same shrub you walk past on trails east of San Diego. It is the standard choice for tree-style and branching layouts because the taper is naturally convincing at aquarium scale. Being dense, it waterlogs and sinks faster than most wood, and it leaches comparatively little tannin. We carry Tom Barr's hand-collected manzanita in fragment packs, individual branches and centerpiece pieces.

Spiderwood

Thin, twisting root wood with dramatic branching. Visually it is the most striking option and the most trouble to sink — expect it to float for a week or more, and plan to wedge it under stone or screw it to a slate base while it saturates. It also throws the heaviest white biofilm bloom of anything here in the first two or three weeks.

Mopani and Malaysian driftwood

Both are heavy enough to sink on day one, which is why they suit beginners. Both give up serious tannins — expect tea-colored water for the first month or two. Mopani has the two-tone light-and-dark grain; Malaysian is uniformly dark and reads well in Amazon biotope setups. If you want the wood without the color, boil it, then soak it in a bucket with water changes for a week or two before it goes in.

Amazon driftwood

Chunkier, more sculptural form, good as a single anchoring piece rather than as branching structure. Moderate tannins, sinks readily.

Cholla wood

The hollow skeleton of a cholla cactus. It is not really structural — it is shrimp furniture. The porous surface grows biofilm fast, shrimp graze inside the tube, and the wood itself breaks down over six to twelve months, which is the point rather than a defect. Cheap, and worth keeping a couple in any shrimp tank.

Alder cones and botanicals

Small, and they punch above their size. A few cones release tannins steadily and are a staple in shrimp and blackwater tanks. They soften the look of a scape at the substrate line and give shrimplets somewhere to graze.

The two things everyone asks

It floats. Nearly all of it does at first, except mopani and malaysian. Boiling helps and also sterilizes; after that it is patience or mechanical force. Soak it in a bucket with a rock on top, or silicone it to a slate tile buried under substrate. Do not wedge it against glass under tension.

It grew white fuzz. That is a harmless biofilm, it appears on almost every new piece of wood, and it goes away on its own in two to four weeks. Shrimp, otocinclus and most snails eat it. Do not dose anything. Siphon it off if the look bothers you.

Tannins: keep them or clear them

Tannins lower pH slightly and soften water — good news if you keep bettas, apistogramma, chocolate gouramis, discus or most South American tetras, all of which color up better in stained water. If you would rather have it crystal clear, run activated carbon or Purigen for a few weeks and increase water changes; the leaching tapers off on its own regardless.

Pre-scaped pieces

We also tie plants onto wood ourselves — java fern and christmas moss on driftwood — which gives you an instant mature-looking piece with no waiting for attachment. Good for a first tank or for filling a gap in an existing one.

Come see the pieces

Wood is worth buying in person. Shape is everything and no photo tells you how a branch sits. Both the Convoy and Mid-City stores keep the wood bins on the floor, and we are happy to let you lay pieces out and try combinations before you commit. More on building the layout in Hardscape 101 and the step-by-step aquascape guide.