Is there a such thing as too much Cholla Wood?

[Revaria]

I just started keeping shrimps and was planning on do a little bit of scaping by growing a few types of mosses on cholla wood, but I was wondering if there was a limit to the amount of Cholla Wood or Almond Leaves in a tank. Googling doesn't seem to find anything accurate on the topic and I was wondering what you guys would think. 

[Pokeshrimp]

Nope. Too much can just make the tank look cluttered and if you dont have a ton of shrimp yet you might not see them very much since they might be hanging out in the cholla.

[jem_xxiii]

I currently have a bunch in my tank as I am growing out some buces tied to them for a future project, and yep it totally makes it look cluttered. But shrimp love it.

[Purplepanda]

Any thoughts on the life span/peaking time of cholla in the tank or is it simply a case that as long as you can see it, it will still be generating beneficial biofilm ?

[Revaria]

I always thought the increased amount of tannins would have an effect on the shrimp if there was too many released in a short period of time, especially if it got concentrated. And from what I read most people say the life span would be somewhere around 2-4 years, but there have been some who kept the wood around for 6+ years. 

[DETAquarium]

The only effect that ALOT of Cholla Wood and/or Leaves will be a softer PH. So I am not sure how much is "Alot" to you, but keep in mind these products do impact PH.

[Vpier]

I always thought the increased amount of tannins would have an effect on the shrimp if there was too many released in a short period of time, especially if it got concentrated. And from what I read most people say the life span would be somewhere around 2-4 years, but there have been some who kept the wood around for 6+ years. 

If you look at a typical monsoon storm, they can get rain amounts that we cant even fathom here in the states. Can you imagine the millions or even billions of gallons of water hitting the forest floor with all that rotting organic materials and running through a river or stream when it rained 15-20 inches in three or four hours after its been raining everyday for weeks?  Saw a show on Nat Geo about the Orinoco and within a few weeks the water level went up 90ft in area almost 340,000 sq miles. The amount of tannin's released is on a scale that we cant even comprehend.  I maybe wrong but I don't think its bad and tannin's have more beneficial properties than bad for fish/invertebrates that come from soft water environments..

[Revaria]

The only effect that ALOT of Cholla Wood and/or Leaves will be a softer PH. So I am not sure how much is "Alot" to you, but keep in mind these products do impact PH.

Yeah thats true, and I soaked the wood I had in a 5 gal bucket for the last week (Two 6 inched teddys, two 1 inched chollas and 1 foot long half pipe teddy), so the amount of tannins that came out was kinda astounding (To me at least), if I put it in my 50 gallon directly, I think the color would be a good dark brown by now, but I just dumped the water every other day which was a cool murky brown, I didn't test the pH of the water though. 

 

If you look at a typical monsoon storm, they can get rain amounts that we cant even fathom here in the states. Can you imagine the millions or even billions of gallons of water hitting the forest floor with all that rotting organic materials and running through a river or stream when it rained 15-20 inches in three or four hours after its been raining everyday for weeks?  Saw a show on Nat Geo about the Orinoco and within a few weeks the water level went up 90ft in area almost 340,000 sq miles. The amount of tannin's released is on a scale that we cant even comprehend.  I maybe wrong but I don't think its bad and tannin's have more beneficial properties than bad for fish/invertebrates that come from soft water environments..

I mean thats definitely true that the water quality drastically changed, but theres good flow, runoff and the dilution that occurred if it rained 90 ft would be a large amount as well. Plus the tanins could have been diluted due to previous smaller rainfalls as well, certain species may also hole up in certain areas which suit their specific needs for a while . On top of that those invertebrates are wild and are definitely less sensitive than the species we keep due to their genetic variability. Honestly theres too many variables to say whether tannins themselves could be beneficial in that situation, but as a whole too much of a good thing turns out to be a bad thing which was one of the reasons I brought up the question of too much wood, but Deta brings up a good point, I would probably say too many tanins would be the point where the pH changes too much too fast, instead of just basing it on how brown the water is.