Driftwood Q's?

belmont0182

belmont0182

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Nov 18, 2003
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Hi all. I am probably going to get my hands on some driftwood in the next couple of days. My boss had some in his yard and wants to get rid of it. he just need an ok from his wife and its mine! What do i need to do to the wood to make it aquarium safe ie. chemicals, soaking?
 
Boil it if possible to eliminate little creepy crawly things, this will also leach out some of the tannins, and reduce the brown water effect. If boiling isn't an option (too big for the turkey fryer) I would mix a mild bleach solution and wash it well then soak it for a week at least and do a lot of water changes to get out tannins and dirt that came with it as well as give the bleach time to dissipate.
 
ok so i did get the driftwood...What is a mild bleach solution; can i get an exact recipe. Also are those water changes in the fishtank, or are they in the tub that im going to rinse them in?
 
I usually go with 1 cup of bleach to a gallon of water (different people have different quantities, I like to kill everything for sure so I go strong), you only have to do the bleach once, the water changes would be with the water you are soaking it in, to help get the tannins out. This also helps waterlog the wood a little so it doesn't try to escape through your glass top when you fill the tank. There are two good ways to get rid of the bleach, one is allow it time to dissipate which the water changes wil help with, the other is dechlorinator which of course gets rid of it as well. Just make sure you use straight up chlorine bleach, nothing with scents or additives.
 
I think the generally suggested amount of water to bleach is 19:1. That's 19 parts water and 1 part bleach.

After that you are going to want to soak it in water for a while, changing the water frequently. You want to make sure the bleach is removed before adding it to your tank. Also the wood may not sink so you might have to attach a piece of rock to it or something else that will make it sink.
 
ok so here is my plan

1.Weigh down wood with rocks to keep is submerged
2. soak wood in bleach mixture for one day
3. soak wood in water for at least one week
4. perform daily water changes


is this ok? any othere commments/suggestions?
 
Plan looks good to me,
Sometimes suction cups are easier than rocks(suction cup it to the bottom of the bucket), but not always. It isn't necessary to saok in bleach all day( a couple of hours would be more than enough), but won't hurt anything IMO. The water changes over the following week will be more than enough to remove the chlorine, Chlorine will gas off even without the changes.
 
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