Driftwood anchoring

[Dangerdoll]

I bought a piece of driftwood from my lfs last week and am having the worst time keping it down. I let it soak for 4 days and tried putting it in the tank. It just won't stay down no matter what. It is attached to a square of slate yet the substrate isn't holding it down....still torpedoing towards the top.Are there any anchoring techniques to use? Should I remove it from the tank for more soaking? And if that's the case, is there anything I can do to chill the buoyance out quicker? So far I've done nothing but let it soak in a large container of water. It's too big to boil but should I have used scalding water?

[MrArapaima]

had the same problem before. I just let it float on the tank, in about 3 days it sunked. just as long as you know that its free from foreign objects.

[carpguy]

The one thing I've heard about boiling is that the hot air expands, is forced out, and then as everything cools water is pulled in to replace it. I'm not sure scalding water will do the trick, because the trick is really heating up the air pockets in the interior. They sould eventually saturate on their own.

I kept a decent size piece down for a while with a few not terribly big rocks. Even after a few weeks it would float back up when they were removed. The driftwood I have now is long and thin and siliconed down to 12x12 ceramic floor tiles covered with sand and some rocks. Doesn't even think about floating, but its long and thin, not much volume. Is there any way you could get couple of rock anchors on to the slate, at least until it can soak through?

[Sumpin'fishy]

I have a piece of wood in my tank that's been in there for at least 6 months. I boiled it when I first got it, then just kind of leaned a large rock onto it. This worked pretty good. I STILL can't get this piece of wood to stay down alone. I can't believe it! I now just have a large river rock leaned on it. Looks natural enough and doesn't cause a problem unless I mess with the rock. I would have just removed the wood, but it's way too cool to get rid of. It has a naturally formed cave within itself and my Jack Dempsey loves this thing. I just deal with using the rock to anchor it.

[wetmanNY]

I make "sandbags" out of gravel and water filling Zip-Loc bags. Quite flexible.

[Matak]

Get a 3/16" masonry drill bit and drill through a peice of slate heavy enough to anchor down the driftwood. Go to a good building supply store and by a #10 or #12 size stainless steel screw long enough to go through the slate and 1.5" into the driftwood.

[Dangerdoll]

wow guys, thanks for all the great ideas. The reason I couldn't boil it is because they don't make pots big enough (except maybe at a soup kitchen, hehehe.....no access to one of those ;) Carpguy, it's more bulkier than slender so that may not work in this instance. But I will try the stone idea, hopefully I'll have a little more luck with that. I'm trying to keep a natural look to it so maybe it'll work out just like yours did Sumpin'.......... Wetman, your idea sounds good as well, I might have to try a few of these things and if all else fails, I'm following you Matak ;)

thanks again everyone...... :D

[clayt101]

Mataks idea sounds very good. However, since it is already attached to a piece of slate, tou could go to home depot, get another piece of slate (~$1.99 for a square foot) and just silicone it to the other piece of slate. That might be easier, especially if you don't have a drill.:)

[Dangerdoll]

hmmmmmm.......good idea clay, will keep that in mind too........

[Slappy*McFish]

I've got a piece of driftwood in my tank that's been in there almost 2 years that still wont stay down on it's own, though not nearly as bad as it used to be. I just hold it down with stones.

[punch]

The plantguild has "ties" attached to suction cups. Will hald almost anything.
http://www.familychest.com/plantguild/html/holdfasts.html
Of course one proble is if you don;t want your drift wood next to your glass or half hidden under your substrate, of you all ready have your substrate down!

[latazyo]

I use plant anchors on mine

[Dangerdoll]

Hi again folks :)

Unfortunately Slappy, the stones just aren't holding this monstor driftwood down.......but thanks for the link punch, I will order a few of those for added strength, extra strength never hurt.......latazyo, I'm wondering if they make anchor weights big enough...I mean, this piece is pretty big....I never seen the anchors before but I doubt they make them big enough....good suggestion though, I have another piece that has been in the tank for a few years now and didn't have near the problems that I am with this monster.......

thanks again for all your replies......you guys are really keeping me busy ;)

[Slappy*McFish]

My driftwood could be considered a monster as well....about 3' long, 11" thick in the middle, and about 15" tall...the stones I used ranged anywhere from 5-10 lbs:D...when I first added this wood, it wanted to sink about as much as a basketball would..lol

[Dangerdoll]

Actually Slappy, that DOES sound a lot like my monster except mine isn't quite as long but it is quite thick and tall. I'd say about 15" tall, about a foot wide and about 5" or so thick in the middle.... You initially put in down with those stones? (btw, I didn't realize you were talking about such big rocks, sorry about that...) I will certainly give that a shot since it worked for you.....thanks for explaining that for me bud ;)

[latazyo]

the piece of mine that uses plant anchors is only 18" tall, shaped like a Y and about 1" thick

my other piece, however, is about 30" long, 1.5" thick, and I anchored it down with baseball sized rocks for about four day sin the aquarium...I accidentally moved the rocks one day and much to my surprise the driftwood stayed submerged w/out the rocks on it

[Dangerdoll]

cool latazyo!! Well, I'm going to a new pet store either tonight or tomorrow morning...... I will be checking the rocks out to use as anchors and I have a few of the suction cups coming in the mail. Thanks you all for all the suggestions/help. You all saved my sanity again!! ;)

[csmaster]

Will mopani wood sink strait away or does that also need to be soaked?

[Rocketman]

Hey, if you really wanted to work at it, you could go to home depot and buy some slate ig enough to fit over the entire bottom of your tank. Then, clear out everything on the bottom, (you could keep the fish and the water in,) look at how far your water level has dropped, (just for fun) and put the slate at the bottom. Now, you can drill whatever you want to into the bottom of your tank. Also, you would need less gravel to get to the height you wanted, and then there would be less space for the waste to settle in. For example, if you only had an average of 1 inch of substrate with the slate instead of 2 before, all your waste would be on the top inch, and there wold be less gravel to move around.
Just a suggestion.

[Dangerdoll]

hehehe, Rocketman, that sounds like a great idea but just a little bit more work than I was into at this point. I mean, I finally got the bottom of the tank to the look I want, except this darned wood piece. BUT I haven't made it to the pet store today but will get out there to get the stones and am waiting for the suction cups to come in. I will keep you all updated.

[Dangerdoll]

ok, well I went to the lfs this mornng and purchased 3 large rocks....natural toned ones. I'm thinking the buoyancy of the wood has lessened a bit but I wanted to be sure so I got 3 of them. I burried the slate in the substrate and placed the rocks where the corners of the slate would be and WALA! it works. Thanks everyone for all the advice, I appreciate it and so does my sanity! :D

[Rocketman]

Yeah, floating wood has been known to drive people insane...