As the popularity of fish keeping continues to increase at a never before seen pace, the number of people new to fish keeping getting involved in keeping fish is at an all-time high.
Due to this, there are a large number of people looking for advice on setting their tanks up, caring for their fish, and choosing their decorations for their tank with us regularly seeing questions from across all areas each month.
We have seen a slight increase in the number of people who have been asking about using grapevine wood in their aquarium recently as more and more people seem to be taking a liking to its unique looks as well as how cheap grapevine wood is right now.
With so many people asking about if they can use grapevine wood in their tanks as well as a number of other related questions about it, we decided to publish our own article about the topic.
We wanted to try and publish the ultimate resource for using grapevine wood in your aquarium so decided to cover the most commonly asked questions that we see from the community.
The table of contents below should easily help you navigate the article to quickly get to the information you need but if you are wanting to use grapevine wood in your tank for a tank decoration or as a fish hide then we would recommend that you try to skim the full article.
Is Grapevine Wood Toxic In An Aquarium?
Correctly repaired grapevine wood is not toxic to your aquarium and can be used as a decoration or fish hideout as a part of your wider aquascape design.
If you are using self-found grapevine wood rather than purchasing it you have to factor in the risk of pesticides having been sprayed on the grapevine wood during the farming process and we would not recommend that you use self-found grapevine wood or veins in your tank.
This is why we always recommend that you use aquarium safe grapevine wood in an attempt to prevent there from being any risk of the grapevine wood having any pesticides or chemicals on it that may harm your fish.
The majority of self-found grapevine wood is from either the wine or fruit industry where a wide range of pesticides are commonly used on the wood to treat it prior to use.
As you can probably imagine, these pesticides and chemicals on this wood can present a threat to the fish and other organisms in your aquarium such as snails and shrimp.
Although some people do take the time to wash these chemicals off their grapevine food, it is actually more difficult than most people initially realize to make an object covered in pesticides aquarium safe, especially for tanks with sensitive fish, corals or anemones in it.
Can You Use Grapevine Wood In Your Aquarium?
You are able to safely use grapevine wood in your aquarium with many fish keepers already using it as a decoration in their tanks without issue.
Just be sure to source your grapevine wood from a safe supply who is not getting it from vineyards who spray pesticides on their grapes during the growing season.
There is no need to worry about the white fungi that grows on fully submerged grapevine wood in an aquarium either as it is harmless to your fish but should be cleaned on a regular basis.
With grapevine wood bring more popular than ever, there are more fish keepers using it in their tanks right now without issue than ever had before.
As the popularity of grapevine wood continues to increase within the fish keeping hobby, we expect this number to continue to increase moving forward.
Provided that you are using aquarium safe grapevine wood in your tanks there should be no serious problems with toxins in your water either making it safer than some other popular wood types on the market.
One thing that we would say about grapevine wood is that it can be much lighter than other wood types making it harder to keep submerged in your tanks so using some hot glue as explained in our article on using hot glue in aquariums to hold it in place may be required.
What Is The White Stuff Growing On My Grapevine Wood In My Aquarium?
Even properly cleaned grapevine wood has a high chance of white fungi growing on it when it is kept submerged for extended periods of time in an aquarium and this is totally normal.
Many fish keepers using grapevine wood in their aquariums ask if this fungi can harm their fish but it is considered fish safe although unsightly so most people clean it off their grapevine wood every week or two.
Due to this increased workload for keeping your tank clean, some fish keepers will switch over to a regular driftwood that does not have this fungi problem to help keep their tank maintenance time as low as possible.
This is very common as constantly having to clean the fungi off the grapevine wood does end up being a pain.
Still, the unique look of grapevine wood and its low prices does keep it as a very popular option for many fish keepers, especially those who enjoy the tank maintenance process of cleaning and caring for their tank as much as viewing their fish.
We just want to make our readers aware of the higher than average chance of this fungi growing on your grapevine wood growing on your tank as many people are caught off guard by it.
Conclusion
That brings our article going over using grapevine wood in your aquarium to an end. We hope that we have been able to help you better understand that in most situations, grapevine wood can be used and although some people do use self-found grapevine wood in their tanks, we would never recommend it unless you are 100 percent sure there are no pesticides on it. You also have to factor in the fungi factor too and although it doesn’t happen on all grapevine wood, there is a high chance of it growing and increasing the amount of time required for your tank maintenance.
