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I have gotten a very nice peice of DW from my local river.the LR is fairly clean but for precautions i boiled the wood anyways.after the boiling process i noticed a brown sappy substance on spots of the wood, when touched it is sticky like pine pitch and also kind of smells piney. i scrubbed most what i could off but i was wondering if this would be safe to put into my fish tank.
i was also wondering what this substance is.

its probably sap from the wood. i wouldnt put it in a tank, this is sugary and would foul up the water. chances are your piece of driftwood wasny drifting arround long enough to get that stuff leeched out... i would take it back to where ever you got it and find a new piece... this piece isnt tank ready yet...

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

how can i get it ready?i got it from my girlfriends dad and he said he got it last year sometime well swimming and id like to put it into the tank

how would it foud up the water? i.e discoloration pollution, or what?

the saugary substance would cause a lot of waste in the tank, almost as if you put a head of lettuce in there and let it rot away, the sugars decomposing could possibly kill all of the fish. you could put it in a large bucket and keep it sunken for a few weeks and test the water to see if the water has any changes in parameters (ammonia, nitrates, nitrites, etc) you can try it in the tank, but it could be catastrophic. no matter what your driftwood will release tannins into your tank with will discolor the water, but thats not a big problem in any tank.

i woudl suggest you research it a little bit (ie how to cure driftwood, Drift wood FAQ, etc that way you can get more than just my opinion/knowledge on the matter as it seems i am the major contributor to this thread. the way to get it ready would be to return it to its habitat and let nature do its thing, then if its still there get it in a year or two... I am not familiar with any synthetic ways to produce driftwood from a piece of wood... by all means do some more homework to find out if there is.

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"