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I am planning a tank to be set up in about 6 months and part of the aquascaping requires a few large branches. I was wondering what process can I do in order to make normal, non-driftwood branches that I could find outside suitable for my aquarium.

Hi,
First of all make sure they dont come from a live tree/plant. I collected some dried out dead wood pieces and below is the procedure i adopted.
Boiled the wood for like half an hour. Got most of the dirt and color out.
Socked the wood in water for around two months, changing water daily until it stopped coloring the water.
Then before putting it into the tank, i gave it another hot bath. Even after all this, the water showed some yellow but after days time it was good.

Hope it helps.....

Just make sure that where you collect the wood from is free from the useage of pesticides, herbicides, etc., as they can be abosorbed into the wood and can be very difficult to remove completely.

Jim

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

Unless you can gurantee the wood does not have all the above problems it is not worth it as it can cause far more problems than it is worth just to save a few $$$.

Have a look in [link=My Profile] http://www.fishprofiles.com/forums/member.aspx?id=1935[/link] for my tank info

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Keith

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100% correct keithgh, but I think boiling the wood for a longer time and then changing water daily during the soaking period gets rid of most of the pollutants...doesn't it?
i case of pestisides/chemical fertilizers, yes, they can really be hard to remove as those get into the cellular structure of the plants especially if they get into the water the plants are using...as wood itself is nothing but dead tissues, the chemicals can reside there indefinitely. Now if these tissues decompose in your tank, the chemicals might get dissolved...
This is not the problem with fish only..the fruit and vegetables we eat have the same level of danger for out healths.....Well, these are the blessings of this new age and we have to live with these

Thanks a lot guys.