Huge Driftwood

[berzer]

Okay, I finally got my 300g tank in the hosue and ready to go. So put in a huge piece of driftwood that I found when I was on vacation. I planted ferns on it and swords and other plabnts around it as was generally happy with the layout.

Then I started filling the tank with water and suddenly the log decides that it needs to live up to its name and starts to float and will not sink and proceeds to destroy the nice layout. So I wedge it down from the hood with some PVC. It's been a few days now and it still will not sink. I am beginning to wonder if it will ever sink.

The driftwood is a partially hollow log about 6-7 ft long and 12 inches in diameter. Probably weights a good 60 lbs at least.

What can I do to get it to sink?

[OrionGirl]

Patience, or fill the hollow portion with rocks. I'd love to see some pics--sounds like a great setup!

[clayt101]

You could attach it to slate. Use a masonry drill bit and stainless steel screws. :)

[adamdwalker]

lol claty how much you charge for rent on your site?

[Gulp]

I had a piece in my tank for over 3 years and it still wanted to float..... I just kept it pinned down under some of the rock in the tank. Sounds like you are going to have to take some of the advice already given and weigh that sucker down.

[CKbean]

You can use fishing line and weights used for fishing to weigh the driftwood down!?! Just as thought!

I would also like to see pics of the tank!

[berzer]

Okay, here's some more info. Had to go back to work earlier. Thanks for the suggestions so far.

Last night I drained the tank (300g is a lot of water by the way).

I took a piece of flagstone that I had purchased locally that weighed about 57 lbs. I tied fishing string to it and tied the log down on one side and tied it down in the middle hoping that I could still get the incline that I wanted since it is pretty much a log. I refilled the tank with water and waited.

About half way up. It tried to float up some so I placed some heavy pieces of river rock (good 20-25 lb rocks) on the flagstone and that sunk it back down. The other side that I did not tie down decided it still wanted to float up. So i had this great incline going on, but after it filled all the way I got a little nervous as the fishing line was very taut and I didn't want to chance it breaking and sending 100+ lbs of wood and rock all over the tank and maybe onto the living room floor along with 300g of water.

I was doing some more research and I have heard

a) boiling it (yeah right no eight foot pots around. Don't own a horse trough)
b) soaking it (would do this, but it's a little late now and I have no idea how long this wood would take to waterlog)
c) screwing it to a big rock and weighing the rock down (I guess I could use the flagstone but I have no idea how easy flagstone is to drill compared to slate)
d) Screwing it to a sheet of plexiglass and weighing the plexiglass down (pretty easy to weigh down as I have plenty of large (20-40 lb) rocks in the tank), but I wondering if the pressure exerted on the wood causing it to want to float would crack the plexiglass and it would come loose at the screws.

[Karnaaj]

Your last idea is the best. If you choose a piece of plexiglass thick enough, say half an inch, you wouldn't have to worry about the screws coming loose. You could even place the plexiglass down with the wood attached and then put your gravel in on top. It might just be enough to hold it down without the use of rocks.

[berzer]

Your last idea is the best. If you choose a piece of plexiglass thick enough, say half an inch, you wouldn't have to worry about the screws coming loose. You could even place the plexiglass down with the wood attached and then put your gravel in on top. It might just be enough to hold it down without the use of rocks.

I called around here and I can get 1/2" thick plexiglass at (18"x48") for about sixty dollars.

I can also get 1/4" lexan for about thirty-six dollars.

I have read that lexan is stronger than plexi and drills much easier too (my bigger concern). And since rocks on whatever i use is not a problem as I can change the landscape to reflect the change, I have another question.

Would I really need the thickness of the plexiglass for this idea to work?

Has anyone used Lexan before?

Am I being overly paranoid about the Lexan/plexiglass cracking and letting the screws go through? Or not (this piece of wood is not your standard piece of aquarium mopani, etc. This is a 7 ft long log that would take some effort to lift.)

Thanks for any help.

[daveedka]

I don't particularly like the slate as it blocks off large portions of my UGF system. So what I did which would work well with or without UGF is to put Egg crate under my gravel and decor, and then attatch the driftwood to it with nylon zip ties (cable ties. it holds the wood firmly, and you can literally use all of you decor for weight. mine stays down very well with no concern of strings breaking with the nylon ties.
dave

[DaisyGirl]

I think the eggcrate will work just fine, like dave said, I really hope you can get some pics up soon!

[chefkeith]

What kind of wood is this?

[Karnaaj]

Don't forget that over time the wood will lose its tendancy to want to float.

[dan2ktj]

I work with Lexan in the sign business. Lexan is polycarbonate and almost unbreakable. We actually break form it (bending) like sheet aluminum. I would highly recommend it over plexiglas. Plex is brittle while Lexan is softer yet stronger. I doubt the 1/2" plex would crack but it's not worth the extra expense.

Dan

[ChileRelleno]

The driftwood is a partially hollow log about 6-7 ft long and 12 inches in diameter. Probably weights a good 60 lbs at least.
I just gotta laugh at the people trying to tell you that the substrate will hold this behemoth down, it'd take a heck of alot of substrate even with some rocks.
I wouldn't worry about the Plexi or Lexan breaking, I'd worry more about the attachments pulling out of the wood. Forget about fishing line for attachment purposes.

So far the best ideas IMO are a combination of attaching the log to lexan, slate or flagstone and filling the interior of the log with rock.

Here's my idea...
If you really want the angle and have the money to spend then I would go with the Lexan and some stainless steel hardware.
I would empty the tank, remove the log, figure out the angles you want, once you have the angles figured and the Lexan, set the log above the lexan, and see where you could place the SS bolts.
I would not use screws, I would want to use bolts with big flatwashers.
Bolts all the way thru the log or have a piece of flat barstock inside the log for the bolts to attach to and some type of stops beneath the log to hold the angle without it slipping down the bolts.
You really need to make this as solid as possible, you may need to have the SS hardware made to order (very exspensive). Another thing to think about is that you'd want to have a second layer of Lexan beneath to keep the ends of the bolts from becoming pressure points on the tank bottom even if their countersunk, when the log does waterlog it could drive the bolts downward.
Also this would be for all intents and purpose a semi-permanent piece of the aquarium, so after positioning I would silicon around the Lexan to keep crud from getting underneath it.

It could take a very long time for this piece to waterlog enough to sink on its own, this piece may give you too many headaches and dangers, your thoughts of log, rocks and water are very real with a highly unstable object within your aquarium.
Your gonna have to be inventive and very sure of the final solution or forget about this log and try something else.

This site sells some rather impressive stumps and other pieces,
http://www.floridadriftwood.com/subcatmfgprod.asp?0=200&1=203&2=-1&6=1
and I think they'd work to accomodate a special request.

[clayt101]

lol claty how much you charge for rent on your site?
Sorry for the delay, just checked back on this thread. My rates are very affordable. Actually, I removed that portion and put in a guestbook. I just recently updated some of my aquarium pics. You can see some of the large pieces of driftwood that I have. I use cypress, its the only kind of wood sold here (local). I then attach it to slate using stainless steel srews.

[theuselessfew]

....I would say at least a year to get fully water-logged. I'd plan to permanently secure it to the bottom of your tank with some of the suggestions made above.

[Debra Mark]

We have a 5' tree stump and a 12' log in our tank. The stump is wedged in and also held down by big pieces of slate. The log is also held down with slate and rocks. We are coming on two years running and have had no problems with holding the wood down.

[clayt101]

Wow 3240 gallons.... Is it a completely glass aquarium or is it built out of wood or concrete? Sounds cool though :)

[Debra Mark]

Wow 3240 gallons.... Is it a completely glass aquarium or is it built out of wood or concrete? Sounds cool though :)

It is wood & fibreglass with 2 panes of glass in the front.

[jonny p]

hey Debra Mark i'd love to see a photo of that

[jonny p]

found it

http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35644