QT fish in with soaking driftwood?

[Jellopuddinpop]

I've had a lot of driftwood soaking for a few weeks now, all being held down by quite a bit of rock. I have a powerhead in the tank to keep the water moving, but no other filtration or aeration at all. It's in a 100g Rubbermaid tote, and gets about 65 gallons changed out weekly.

When I rescape my tank, I would like to add a couple bristlenose plecos to the tank. Do you think it would be possible to just drop them in this "wood-soaking" tank for qt? I'm worried about ammonia / nitrite buildup, but I'm thinking there's enough surface area with all of the wood, and the water volume + water changes would be enough to keep them safe.

I don't have any spare filter to add, but I could probably drop a bag of filter media from my main tank into this one if necessary (probably right near the powerhead).

Think this would be OK?

 

[*Ci*]

The pH could be substantially different in the tannin infused soaking tank, to what the plecos might be used to. I would be careful with acclimating them.

 

[Jellopuddinpop]

If I were to do a long drip acclimation (like 2-3 hours), do you think there would be enough water volume to avoid ammonia / nitrite toxicity? I really can't set up a filter the way this is set up

 

[*Ci*]

How long will they be in the qt? In addition to water changes you can always dose Prime or Safe to deal with ammonia toxicity, and salt or calcium chloride to deal with nitrite (I don’t trust Prime for nitrite).
For longer term, if you’re running a power head, could you just stick it onto a sponge filter?

 

[Jellopuddinpop]

They'll be in there for probably a month, and the wood has been soaking for a month already. It's one of those in-tank suction cup type powerheads, so no sponge filter possible. The best I could do would be to take a bag of filter media from one of my filters and put it next to the powerhead.

 

[Mr.Shenanagins]

I would think it would be fine, beneficial actually. The tannins will help acidify the water, making the ammonia excretion less toxic. And they can munch off the wood until you’re ready to introduce them to the new tank.