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What type of wood works the best? Can I use a piece of oak any other type of wood I find in the forest. I would like to add piece to my one of my tanks but its just dam expensive at my LFS. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

"No whammy, No whammy, No whammy, STOP!!"

1984-Michael Larsen On Press Your Luck

Hey aaron, is this for a saltwater tank? If it is I wouldn't recommend that you use DW in a SW tank. It can leach tannins and mess with the water quality, pH specifically. You shouldn't make keeping a SW tank more difficult than it already is.

If this is for a FW tank, I'd PM a moderator to have it moved into an appropriate forum. I've never used "wild" type driftwood, but know there are consequences of just picking up whatever stick you find out there.

---

Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Its for a FW tank i must not have been paying attention to were i was posting.
thanks


"No whammy, No whammy, No whammy, STOP!!"

1984-Michael Larsen On Press Your Luck

I have collected driftwood from one of the lakes in my area. I'm not sure if the type of wood matters, but make sure you scrub and boil it before you put it in. I dragged a four foot piece of wood about 2 miles down a trail that went up and down a cliff, that was one crazy journey. I used a drill with a wire sander attachment to remove the outer layer and some of the bark left on it. Since it was so large we used a metal trashcan on cement blocks and started a fire under it to boil it for two hours. Only half of it would fit under water at a time so we had to flip it to get both sides. It will turn the trashcan black and crack the cinder blocks, but it would most likely still be cheaper than what you would buy in the fish store. You may get some odd looks from your neighbors if you go with the trashcan idea but it does work. I haven't had any problems and neither has my friend, we both have driftwood we collected in our tanks. It may take a while to sink, the large piece took about two months to fully sink, but I weighted it down with some slate I bought at the lfs. One thing to consider before getting the driftwood though is the condition of the area. If there are any chances for pollution of the pieces you choose I would avoid getting them from that area. I'm not sure if others have had problems with using driftwood they found and maybe I got lucky, but I would do it again.

What does that mean, Bob? "Till the cows come home." Where have the cows been?

Sounds like a pretty good plan. Although I only need a piece for a 29gl so I dont think I will need a trash can will be needed. I think just a lobster pot will do.

"No whammy, No whammy, No whammy, STOP!!"

1984-Michael Larsen On Press Your Luck

I am conservative about adding anything to my tanks. I have a horror of adding something found and killing off all my stock.

If you know it is the sort of wood often used in tanks follow AO's cleaning advice.

Good luck getting your tank the way you like it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

Here is a tip that I learned. After you think that you have disinfected or sterlized and item for your aqaurium let it dry then add a few drops of white vinigar--- if the vinigar fizzles/bubbles then you should not add it. I used this for rocks which I collected. It worked great, as I did not lose any fish. Not sure if you can do this with wood though Maybe someone else can confirm this?

Here fishy... fishy.. Here fishy... fishy...

Wouldn't work for wood .
The vinigar is testing for if it'd raise the Ph of a tank, not for nasties that'd decompose or poison, or grow up and turn into evil fish brain sucking monsters..... ermm

*cough* Sorry, got carried away there ....

I've used wild caught wood in my tanks before, you want to steer away from pine as it's soft and will degrade faster. You'll know it's pine because when you put it in the offices microwave to kill the beasties it'll make the whole office smell pine fresh. If you find a piece you just can't live without it does last for awhile in the tank, mine lasted a good few years, since then I believe the new office tank maintainers have removed it for plastic plants and roman columns ....(No commet)....

Give any wood you do catch a good look over, if there seems to be any signs of infestation you might want to consider another piece instead. In the end it'll be up to you to decide if it's worth putting in your tank.

^_^

Hi Tina,
The tip you have mentioned is used only for testing rocks
before placing them in an aquarium. Some rocks are called
"carbonates" and when you drop some vinegar (a weak acid)
on the rock it will bubble or fizz. That is the carbon
dioxide escaping. If you use carbonate rocks in an
aquarium, it will change the pH up, into the 8s and hold
it there over time. So, if you are keeping tetras, for
instance, you skip those rocks. But, if you are keeping
brackish water fish, or Rift Cichlids, then you would
use plenty of carbonate rocks even carbonate gravel,
in your tank.

Frank

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Bog wood and drift wood make the best decorations, at least in my opinion. I live just minutes from the Gulf of Mexico along the coast of Florida. There are quite a few swamps around here and this enables me to pick up some unquie pieces of bog wood. Pre-soaked and water logged.
If you live in an area that has no swamps, bogs, lakes or streams; you can use forest wood.
KEEP IN MIND...that all wood is not the same. Some wood may leak acids and saps for years no matter how long they have been pre-soaked.
To pre-soak wood, pick up the pieces you like, wash them off good. Get a large enough container to completely cover the wood. I add about a cup of bleach per 10 gallons. Bleach will kill all the krud on the wood and help pull out sap and acids. Let this soak for 2 weeks, drain the water and start over. You may have to do this several times over weeks or months depending on the wood. Rinse the wood off nice and good, drain all the water in the container, rinse the container. Now, for the final soaking, fill the container again, soak the wood and add 4x the amount of declor you think you need. Wait a week, and you should be good. Give the wood a final rinse and your all set.

Good luck!

"There is also a Clown Pleco in this tank some where. I am telling you, HE IS IN HERE."

If this is for a FW tank, I'd PM a moderator to have it moved into an appropriate forum

Hmmm, is this forum for marine. I thought aquascaping was for general scaping questions. I was going to post my own driftwood question here - but maybe I will look around the other forums to see if it would fit there better.

Cheers
TW

Hi All,
This discussion is perfectly acceptable for this forum
and I would encourage it. Babelfish monitors this forum
quite closely and were anything out of place she would
take care of it.

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Hi,
Driftwood, taken from the ocean or brackish water may not
be the best for a freshwater tank. Over time it soaks up
the saltwater and, I would think, release it back into the
aquarium. If the tank is a freshwater aquarium, that would
change the pH upwards into the 8s and release the salt into
the tank changing its specific gravity.

Driftwood from the local pond, lake, stream, can also pose
some problems depending upon possible polution of that body
of water.
In either case the wood must be "prepared" before one
places it in the enclosed environment of an aquarium.

Preparation of driftwood:

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=16&cat=1980&articleid=3319

http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/general.cfm?general_pagesid=327

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/article_view.php?faq=2&fldAuto=34

Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Good point on the polution.
I always soak my wood in a mixture of bleach and water. I dont have an exact formula, I just dump bleach in at my own descrestion. Bleach takes care of all the nasties in the wood and does a great job of sucking the acids out.
Salt water does the same, a nice dry piece of wood is the result from a long salt bath (drift wood). In my experiance, there hasnt been a problem with salts "creeping" out of the wood. If salt does creep out, then weekly water changes should take care of the problem.
It is hard to tell what a Specific Gravity or salinity is since all the hydometers I have seen on the market ranges from 1.010 to 1.030. But I would think that the amount of salt that would creep out would be negliable unless dealing with wild caught fish or discus.

"There is also a Clown Pleco in this tank some where. I am telling you, HE IS IN HERE."

Thanks Frank, Matty's comment about it being the wrong forum (1st reply to this thread) confused me, so I thought I should check before I started my own driftwood thread here.

Cheers
TW

Yep this is the right forum,
I believe the confusion has come from the fact that the thread was originally posted in the SW section .

^_^

oh, I get it now. I was confused before

Thanks

Cheers
TW

Thank you so much for clearing that up Babel! I have been following this thread & could not imagine what had gotten into matty suggesting this was the wrong forum. My faith in mattyboombattty has now been renewed.

Attached Image:

The confusion was from me and for that I apologies. Thats what you get for check out section you dont belong in just yet. I ll stick to the FW tanks until i get my new house and have the extra room for a new tank. I think with this one I am going to try a multi step process by boiling then bleach. Well see what happens. I’ll put some pictures up when I am done. Thanks for the assistance.

"No whammy, No whammy, No whammy, STOP!!"

1984-Michael Larsen On Press Your Luck