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If you just put it in your tank, any pollutions absorbed by the wood from the river would leach out into your tank. Could be very harmful to your fish. If there are any germs or bacteria in or on the wood, it would infect your tank. I personally wouldn't take that kind of risk.

Best bet is to get your driftwood pieces from a source with known provenance. A responsible dealer will supply it, albeit at a cost. While picking up freebie aquascaping is tempting, it's best left to those who know what they are doing, and who can cope with the logistics of treating it.

Plus, I'm puzzled about the size of these lumps of wood you mentioned. Did you intentionally hunt down large pieces for a big Cichlid aquarium, or did you intend cutting them into smaller pieces for more modest aquaria?

If the latter, then cut them to size first, then they'll be more manageable for curing. Only curing a piece of wood 6 feet long is going to be a logistical nightmare even if you know what you're doing. Just finding a vessel large enough to submerge it will be a severe test of logistical ability. And if you want to boil it, then unless you've got access to some industrial plant, I'd forget it. Not least because the cost of boiling a piece that size in water for 6 to 8 hours vis-a-vis gas or electricity costs will be horrendous. Equivalent to the quarterly running cost of a big reef aquarium, and I mean a BIG reef aquarium. Boiling a bathtub full of water is an industrial scale operation!




Last edited by Calilasseia at 07-Mar-2005 12:56

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

yup, better safe then sorry

thanks erbody

If you can't properly bake or boil it because of its size, it's best not to use it, in my opinion. It's better safe than sorry, right?

Fair enuf :-) Just adding my two cents ;-)

i already bought two peices of driftwood that cost me $125 that turn my tank yellow but a little carbon and it was fine.

It may also turn your water a beautiful shade of yellow

would it be best to not use this large driftwood?

Don't do bleach. Being a pretty strong base, it is quickly sopped up by the wood (and will eventually ruin it, as it is incredibly corrosive), and unless you plan on a week's soaking in dechlor, you're going to have some bleach in the tank.

It would just be plain dangerous to plop it in. Basically what would happen:

Tons of dust and dirt, first, comes off of it and dirties your filter. Then, it leaches out tannins and dirt from deep inside of it, and turns your water very dark, and stinky. All kinds of strange pathogens and over "hitchikers" like crustaceans, bug larvae, parasites, etc come off of it and into your aquarium. And if it came from polluted waters, that'll get into your tank, too.

Wood is porous and absorbs all the nasty stuff inside of its environment. It really isn't that easy. Think of them like a sponge you can't wring.

i got some driftwood from the mississippi today and i was wondering if i should prepare the wood in some way before i put it in my tank?

what would happen if i just put the driftwod into my tank?

it sounds like that all i need to do is get the surrounding temp. up to atlest 150 f. so could i build a fire and hold the wood high enough so it doesnt burn?

Possible, but I'd set it in the sun for longer than a day.

The problem with bleach is that it only does the surface, and won't help @all for whats deeper inside the wood. Again, using it is risky and I only mention it as a method in cases where the wood is much larger than normal. Some people use outdoor cookers in cases such as this.

^_^
[hr width='40%']"There’s an emptiness inside her. And she’d do anything to fill it in.
And though it’s red blood bleeding from her now. It's more like cold blue ice in her heart.
She feels like kicking out all the windows. And setting fire to this life."

could i soak each side at different times in a little bleach, then set the wood outside for a day?

Might want to add, too, that when soaking, dump out the water and refill it with new water every/every other day or so until the water is clear.

...6'?? I thought it was 6"... oops.

6' long is going to be difficult to treat for critters, it won't even fit in a bathtub with bleach. I've used boiling, baking, and bleaching.
What I'd suggest in your case is that if you're Absolutly sure there is no pollution soaked into the wood. Cut it into two or three managable pieces. Then boil it for 30 minutes and soak to remove tannins and sink.
If you havent a large enough pot you can bake it in a 150-200F oven (keep an eye on it of course) for 20-40 minutes till lightly browned then baste with...wait ....just bake it forget about the color and basteing. After it is baked you'll need to soak in warm water to remove the tannins and allow it to sink.
Using bleach is much much more risky as wood is porus and will absorb the bleach. I've used a light bleach solution followed by multiple rinses with extra strength dechlor mix and a sunshine bath (bleach will break down in UV).

The most important thing however is where the wood came from. If you don't know the water source personally you're taking a great risk using it for the tank no matter how great a piece it is.

^_^ [hr width='40%']"There’s an emptiness inside her. And she’d do anything to fill it in.
And though it’s red blood bleeding from her now. It's more like cold blue ice in her heart.
She feels like kicking out all the windows. And setting fire to this life."

I'm not entirely sure about the baking technique, wait for someone else to post about that, because if done wrong, it might start fire.

Boiling, well. Put it in a large pan of water and boil it! I boiled mine for 15 or so minutes.. but again, might want to wait for someone to verify this.

one piece is 6' the are about 3'.

what should i do?

Definitely. If you got it from nature, it could carry all kinds of nasty little critters. Boil it, or bake it if it's too large.