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ok i've seen all the posts on drift wood, how to do this or that. now my question about the boiling.... how long? total?

the piece below, i have soaked in a large pot, about 90 minutes on both ends. is this good? or longer? the piece was really dry before i got it. and it cam from coast of Washington state.


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Fish tanks are an expensive addiction

That's a very niece piece of Driftwood. Great find.

I would boil it for 20-30 minutes & them leave it to "sink" in coldwater, till it get waterlogged.



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I would get a large plastic bin and fully soak it for at least two weeks to remove most of the Tanins (varies in timber species) put a brick on it to make it sink.

Boiling I have never done it in 35+years in fact I had never heard of it until I came to FP.
This piece of DW was soaked for at least four weeks see in photos.

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Keith

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I would discourage boiling as it breaks down many structural proteins and organic structures in the wood. this weakens the overal structure and shorten it's lifespan in a tank. I recommend doing as gary suggested and soaking it for several days/weeks until it sinks. Warm water is alright but I would recommend not exceeding 35*C thereby eliminating the risk of denaturing

The only reason I would support boiling wood is if it's for a loriicad tank, were soft wood becomes a nice addition to their diet.

You must realize that this hobby requires time and patience, hastyness is usually rewarded by instability.

well i only boiled it for a total of about 2 hours, the fun part was finding something to soak it in for them 2 weeks. luckly a friend of mine just got ahold of a 29g tank and is goign to clean it up before its sold. so i'm using it for a few weeks to soak it.

Fish tanks are an expensive addiction

only 2 hours . I would consider a few minutes too much, but two hours O.o wow. Hope it was some tightly packed and strong wood.

I have boiled some drift wood for quite some time....like 4ish hours with no problems.

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
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Daka boiled my driftwood for ~12 hours...I haven't had any problems with it at all I soaked it for a week or so too... it's still leeching craploads of tannins even after like a year...

*kicks grapevines*

I almost bought some DW from work the other day but one of my workers said that it bleeds red. I was like I don't think so. I don't need to deal with that!

55G Planted tank thread
19G Container Pond
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y118/Wingsdlc/Ric