# ZooMed African Mopani Driftwood; Sap?!



## Wolfstardobe (Jan 28, 2010)

I got a new piece of ZooMed Mopani driftwood from a LFS for my new ten gallon. I set the tank up with plants from my twenty gallon as well as a cory cat and about eight trumpet snails to start the cycle.

I've been soaking the driftwood for about a week now and the tannis has finally gotten to a nice level to put it in the tank but the wood is sticky in places. Little white beads of tree sap are seeping through pores in the wood. 

Has anyone dealt with sap before? I've never had a problem with Malaysian Driftwood. Should I even risk putting this piece of driftwood in the tank at all? 

I tried scrubbing the sap off with a tooth brush but it gummed up the brush so bad that it was useless and boiling doesn't seem to have any effect on the sap either.


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## registereduser (Jul 30, 2010)

Is it a large thick piece? I try to buy thinner smaller pieces and haven't had sticky sap, just white fuzz that goes away eventually.

Maybe you can contact the company for info? They have a "leave a message" tab on the bottom of their home page:

zoomed.com


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## Wolfstardobe (Jan 28, 2010)

It's a round piece. Looks like it was a knotted area of branch. The part that's sappy is about 1/2 inch in diameter. 

I will contact them and see what they say. It did have a bit of bark that the sap seems to be originating from. I plan to remove it to see if that helps.


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## peachii (Jan 6, 2013)

I'd get them to replace it rather than worry about putting it into the tank honestly. It shouldn't do that.

I'm not sure what sap would do to the water quality long term.


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## Wolfstardobe (Jan 28, 2010)

I heard back from ZooMed and they were very interested in my predicament. They had never heard of the problem before. They wanted photos of the wood and a close-up of the sap coming out of it. 

I have searched around the web and a few others have described similar issues. 

They haven't said anything about replacing the product or anything else but I was very happy that they were generally interested in the problem.


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## jadaBlu (Feb 14, 2013)

Let us know how it goes. You should ask them to replace it when you email the pictures.


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## Wolfstardobe (Jan 28, 2010)

I emailed the pictures and a more experienced customer representative responded. They were quite nice and very interested in the problem. 

They are sending me a replacement and paying postage for me to send my sappy piece directly to them so they can "analyze" it. 

The representative was shocked that it had bark or sap as the pieces they sell are suppose to be strictly "root wood" that have been "dried in the sun".

Overall it was a pleasant experience.


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## registereduser (Jul 30, 2010)

Good! Nice to see good customer service.


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## Quinn (Apr 4, 2010)

UGH I have been soaking my wood for weeks, and was going to put it in my tank, and now I'm getting what I can only assume is sap as well... Did your issue ever get resolved? 
So I should not put it in my tank then? I've seen some other posts on similar situations where some people thought it was ok to add but....


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## Blue Fish (Jun 11, 2012)

Oh crap! I JUST bought some of this stuff the other day...it's been soaking for almost 24 hours. I've never bought driftwood before but I found good things online about the Mopani zoomed wood. 

I'm glad the customer service was so good though, hopefully they'll get this worked out for you quickly.


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## Wolfstardobe (Jan 28, 2010)

I contacted Zoo Med directly and they had me send the piece back to them so they could analyze it and they replaced it promptly. They were really nice about the situation and took the situation seriously. They requested many pictures and a detailed description of the problem. 

I am happy to report that the new piece they sent me was sap free!

I personally didn't want to risk my fish. I hope your issue gets resolved also.


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