making wood fish friendly

[Catlid]

well i was at work and was looking for a cool peice of wood to put with my gold severum. Well i found one and was wondering how do i go about cleaning it?

[ewok]

need more info.. what kind of wood?

[Catlid]

no clue just picked it up off the ground at my work.

[~*LuvMyKribs*~]

You can boil it for a looooong time, a few hours, then soak it (weighted if it floats) for a few days. Is it wood from a confierous or deciduous? conifer woods tend to be very pourous and will probebly leach more tannin than deciduous trees.

Thats what i did with the wood i used and everything worked out fine.


I wouldn't bleach it because the wood would probably absorb the bleach.

[cdawson]

If it' coniferous wood forget it, they leach deadly toxins into the water that'll kill your fish. Anything that has a turpintiney smell to the sap will kill your fish.

[Catlid]

Originally posted by cdawson
If it' coniferous wood forget it, they leach deadly toxins into the water that'll kill your fish. Anything that has a turpintiney smell to the sap will kill your fish.
how can i tell?

[ewok]

coniferous = has cones = pine tree

other than that..... :huh:

sorry

[Catlid]

no pine cones

[valerie]

You can't jsut use any wood you find, it has to be dead wood(driftwood) other wise it will decompose in the tank poulting the water.

Dont' use any of the coniferous wood as they do leach bad stuff(as posted above). you can tell pine/spruce by its smell, its bark and its sapiness(not a word but it has sticky stuff).

It would be best to buy the dirft wood as i once tried picking up driftwood from the lake and it took 4 months of soaking(daily hot water changes) and boiling every day for hours untill it finally sunk.

regular wood you find on teh ground usually shouldn't be used in tanks.