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what types of wood are ok to put into an aquarium and what types are not?

Your best off just getting your wood from a store that sells it specifically for fish. Then you don't have to worry about sterilizing it or what type it is. The only trouble you might have is getting it to sink if it's not attached to slate.

i have heard that there are a number of woods that will still sink, you just have to get the right one kind. Then agan picking at plecofanatics brains helps alot as well. None-the-less, I now havea list of some useable wood that i can get at the lfs and that will sink on its own without, haveing to soak it for days and makeing it water-loged. And thats what i have been hearing, the lfs is the best bet for any drift wood to put in the aquarium, so i guess next time im in town i'll have to look into getting some.

Mopani Wood is expensive but worth it ... because you can get nicely gnarled and intricately twisted pieces that you can stack together to form tangled root grottoes for fishes such as Synodontis catfishes, Corydoras and Loaches. The bigger pieces can be pressed into service in a similar fashion in larger aquaria for fishes such as the Black Ghost Knife Fish. Expensive, but if you search in the bin for some good shaped pieces, it's well worth the effort and the expense. I have some lovely pieces just waiting to be pressed into service as decorations in my aquaria, but the trouble is that they take a LONG time to dump their tannins during the pre-soak - I have a piece that's been soaking for a year and it's still not properly ready!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Just because you get it from an LFS does not mean it will sink it depends totally on the species of the wood. I have a large piece of wood in my 5ft tank I purchased from the LFS and after 3+ years it would still float a litle if I took the rock of of it. It is a species of wood that water does not penetrate very well at all.
One thing to remember just because you see a nice piece of wood laying around it will be suitable it could easly contain many contaminates and/or poisons. Another thing make sure it is clean and suitable not from a reptile tank.
I have several pieces in my tank I have collected but and a big but these were collected from very tropical waters and had been sun bleached for many years.

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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yes, the problem around here is that the lfs dont have a very large selection of wood. and what they do have is junk. buti cant really go and pick it off a stream bed because the rivers around here are not the best.

I have Mopani DW and all I did was boil it in a big pot for about 4 hours and then let it soak in cold water for a couple days and it was ready to go. It sank and is not releasing any noticable tannins.
A year to soak wood is ridiculous and to time consuming.
Try the boiling method.

I had to collect my wood over several years. The nearby store only gets in wood about 3 times a year and then they only carry maybe 2 large pieces at a time. The rest of their wood and most other places are just tiny pieces(6" or less) stuck to slate. You can order some driftwood online but beyond a certain size you'll end up with extra shipping charges. There are also some people who sell wood on ebay but you sometimes can't be certain where they got the stuff or if it's been properly sterilized. There are a few large sellers on there I might trust because they've made a business out of finding good wood and properly sterilizing it to sell.

I bought a big piece of wood attached to slate at the lfs and it wouldn't sink for anything. I buried the slate under 3" of substrate, stacked 5 large rocks on it, and left it that way. 2years later when I took the tank down it still started to lift up off the bottom when I removed the rocks and substrate. Not all wood sinks no matter what you do to it or how long it soaks. It's a risk you sometimes just have to take. I've got a $30 piece I can't use in the tanks because I can't find anyway to get the stuff to sink so I gave it to the degus to climb on and eventually destroy.

i see, not all wood can become watter-logged... interesting, i guess thats why some driftwood drifts so well, haha... im not funny. regardless i'll just have to do some hunting then and maybe order online considering there ar about 3 lfs aroud here.

Try the boiling method.

I would if I had a saucepan big enough!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

the wood i have in my aquarium right now i have boiled, and it seems to get the tannis out of the wood at a much faster rate of speed.

To boil larger peaces of wood, you could use a metal garbage can and use it as a big pot. Put it on 2 cement blocks in the back yard, and build a fire with some wood and charcoal (50/50) in-between the blocks. Set the can on top of the blocks and add water and wood.
Do this until the water looks like nasty tea, then dump the water and do it again until the water is clear, or kind of clear.

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thankyou for the post oldpro,very good idea for the larger peices!

Trouble is all our dustbins have been plastic for, oh, 15 years ...


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

I completely forgot about that but it's true. I wouldn't even know where to get a metal trash can. All the stores sell are plastic now. There's an old one out on the porch to keep the coons out of the trash but it's rusted through in various places. However you can get round metal containers easily enough. Like oil drums I guess but they've been used for different purposes and some might be safe for use. There's this spot where all the construction companies dump them and I load them up in my truck to use for training horses to run barrels and speed events. There are materials that would work but as for actual metal trashcans I'm not sure I could find one that wasn't too old to hold water. The one I've got is proabably 30 years old. It was old before I was born.

Garden centres should still sell rubbish burners, we have em here, b&q 24.99, my mom bought one last month. Basically a dustbin with a lid that has a little chimney in it.

we have an old oil drum that is used for burning papers and cardboard and whatnot that causes a lot of ash into the air, so we don't cause a field fire. But big ol' drums like that are thick and and would take a while to heat-up unless you have a nice big fire going under it, which wouldn't be bad. I like fires, as long as they arnt burning down the corn or soy field.

Hi,
I would not use an old burn barrel for soaking driftwood.
Between what the barrel originally was used for and then
what was partially incinerated after that, I would avoid
it at all costs. Some of the byproducts of the process
could be toxic to fish and plants.

Frank


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