i live in california, so i have been soaking the wood outside but covered in a 5 gallon bucket with a lid, and yes i am going to go the fishless cycling method. my buddy is gonna donate 5 gallons of water from an already established tank of his and im gonna go from there. of course i will still be ading ammonia and bacteria starters of my own but the water from his tank will help speed theprocess a little.
My tank equipment is as follows
28 gallon euro bowfront tank
marineland biowheel 200- rated for a 50 gallon tank
a 100 watt heater
an air pup rated for 50 gallons
15watt dayglow marineland bulb with housing
lighting timers
and some miscellaneaous cleaning supplies.

I got 2 good size pieces of african driftwood in my tank and I soaked them for about a week before adding them but they still leached..... I bought this organic absorption resin... it worked great, it took about 2 weeks to get the tank crystal clear..... you rinse it in salt water when it gets dirty and reuse it, its reusable up to 2 years, I got it at the lfs.

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so i got my tank all set up and have 5 tiger barbs in the tank for cycling.... but my water is still brown i soaked the driftwood and have activated carbon but the tannins still wont go away

[IMG]http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j298/asilayhoping/Tank1.jpg[/IMG]

and how do you post pictures??