How long to keep driftwood soaking?

[NJ Devils Fan]

I just got a piece of driftwood from the fish store. I was wondering how long I should keep it soaking. Like until the water is clear?

[Sting]

If it is a real piece of driftwood, and it has a slate screwed to the bottom for grounded it, let it soak for maybe a couple days or even more depending on the piece, if you want the peat to come out so when added to the tank so it won't turn the water brown. If it's a fake piece, just rinse it off with hot water and put it in. If it's more of a top-heavy piece, soak it for a very long time! I had so much bad luck with a top heavy piece that I ended up throwing away because I got so frustrated! it kept floating up, and no matter how much I burried it, the piece would not stay on the bottom on the tank!

[Bruddah Chrispy]

I soaked mine in boiling water until it stopped looking like tea.

One caveat: I tend to distinguish between bog-wood (wood from a swamp) from driftwood (wood that's been floating in the ocean). Under those definitions I would think that driftwood would require other treatment to remove salt. But I may be way off here, since it seems as if most people around here use the terms interchangeably.

[NJ Devils Fan]

Yea, it's real and has a slate piece screwed to the bottom to keep it down. Should I keep changing the water until it no longer is brown?

[Skittyfish]

I've got a rather large piece that is bigger in the middle. I soaked it in a tall garbage can with a plastic bag in it. I kept filling it full of hot water and tying the top of the bag. It still took about 9 days and then when I put it in the tank I still had to wedge a rock on to keep it down for about another week. Thing still floats if all of the gravel gets moved off the slate (been in water for a year now).

Be Patient and good luck.

[superstein61]

Boil it - or if its too big, put it in a big container and pour the hottest water you can on it.

Change the water frequently til the tannins stop leaching. then soak it some more.

The hot water helps saturate the wood quicker - helping the piece to sink. That said, depending on how big the piece is, you may want to soak it for a week or two or more. I had a pretty big piece (you can see it in my tank pics in the link below) - that I soaked for 3 days - first day I changed water several times. It still wanted to float when I started setting up my tank. For another reason (problems with my sump plumbing), I had to disassemble the tank - so I soaked it for about 3 weeks in a large garbage can (I didn't bother changing the water that often). When I set the tank up again, it was saturated enough to no longer float once I put gravel on the slate. If I didn't have the gravel though - it would likely still have floated

[NJ Devils Fan]

superstein61, my driftwood is about a foot and a half high by like 4-5 inches wide. I got home with it around 2 p.m. or so, and started soaking it in hot water in an old garbage pail for about 30 minutes or so. Then, I dumped the water out and did it again for about 1 hour or so, then i dumped it out and left it for a few hours until about 7:45 or so, and dumped the water out. I got a giant pot filled with water and boiled it, then dumped it in the pail. I did that about 5 times so that the whole piece was covered(I had to put a bottle of apple juice on it so that it didn't float up). That where it is now. The water is still very hot(almost 3 hours later). I really can't even leave my hand in it. Tomorrow morning, I will do it again, and tomorrow night, again.

[NJ Devils Fan]

This is what I was going to tell you yesterday but couldn't sinse AC went on hiatus.

"This morning, I put fresh boiling water in the fail an put the bottle of apple juice on it again to keep it down. At around 2 p.m., I took the wood out and attempted to put it in the tank. I sifted the heavy slate piece under the sand, but the wood didn't stay down, no matter how many times I thought I had it. So, I took it out and put it back in the pail with new hot water and it's been there all day"

Just now(about 3:30 p.m.) I took the wood out, dumped the water, and put fresh hot water in(put the apple juice on top again). It's getting better though because it's not shooting up as fast as it was yesterday. I'll probably try again tomorrow. Oh, the water doesn't turn tea color anymore.

[superstein61]

NJ - yes, its gonna take a while - I think at least a week, probably more with that size piece til it gets waterlogged enough to not want to float up. However, after another day or so you could probably put it in your tank, put the apple juice or a big brick/rock on top of it and cover the slate with sand (I say this knowing you are still setting up/ cycling the tank). But its probably easier if you leave it out and keep up what you are doing

[NJ Devils Fan]

Thanks super.

[wishmaster]

I have a fairly large piece in my 125 gallon that still floats to this day. After better then a year of being in the tank. I wait it down with two large rocks. I don't think you'll ever get all the tanins out of your wood but I hear boiling is a quick way to do that, although its usually not possible for larger pieces.

[NJ Devils Fan]

wishmaster, I put my piece in an old garbage pail that we used to have in the kitchen. I boiled water in the biggest pot we had and poured it in the pail over and over untill the hold piece was covered.

[Orbitorly]

Hey Jeremy, the big peice of driftwood I have doesnt have the thing on the bottom to hold it down. I soaked mine for 2 days and it was fine.

[NJ Devils Fan]

Ok, I will try tomorrow, now, I got to go study.

[NJ Devils Fan]

I tried is a little while ago and still no good. This is killing me. ;) :(

[Rocketman]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but each time you expose the driftwood to the air, after soaking it, doesnt that reduce the effectivness?
Try setting some gold on the slate. 18 times the density of water :)

[Dangerdoll]

Devil...

I had the same problem a few weeks ago. After soaking it for about a week though, mine still shot up like a torpedo with a mind of its own. After a lot of good suggestions from here, I went and got 3 big rocks from the lfs. I wasn't sure if the rocks would be heavy enough to hold the wood down because of it's determination but to my surprise, it only took 2 of those rocks to hold it down. You might want to try doing that since the tannis is no longer the problem for you. ;) good luck!

[NJ Devils Fan]

thanks for the suggestion dangerdoll.

now, where are those gold bars of mine? ;) rocketman

[Mr.Jingles]

yeah, and who has spare gold nuggets laying around?

yeah, I figure trying to get rid of tannins is futile. basically, unless the thing has been soaking for 5 or 10 years, youre going to have to deal.

floating is still a problem because no matter how saturated the wood is with water, the wood particles are still less dense then water and will try to euqalize the pressure by floating a bit. if the log is totally saturated, it will stay at the bottom, it just wont sit like a rock.

just stick the thing in your tank and stick some rocks on it.

[Sumpin'fishy]

One other thing that came to mind about waterlogging my driftwood was that I only really could weight it down with the wood having the same direction facing up. I have a strange shape to mine and couldn't get rocks to hold it down when I flipped it over to boil/soak. If you can, flip the wood over (possibly with the slate-weighted end facing up and soak it again for a while (days). This may allow the air in the log to more easily come out of some of the grain in a different direction. I have noticed that the end of the wood that I could not get facing up is the end that still wants to float. I have had this wood in my tank at least 9 months. I currently use large rocks half-covering it to weight it down enough.

I don't know if I'm making any sense to anyone else, but I do think this will work, however it may be only mildly effective.

HTH

[wetmanNY]

Take some Zip-Loc bags and turn them into sandbags full of gravel and water. Drape them over the driftwood. Plant it up and try to ignore those sandbags for the first month or so. Gingerly remove one at a time. If the wood rises even slightly under your fingers, it's too soon.

Cycling takes ages too!

[NJ Devils Fan]

I think I will try something to the affect tomorrow when I try to get some more dust out of the sand. It gets very annoying when I try to put the wood in the tank, and then there is dust floating atound so much that I can't even see what I am doing from the top.

[Rocketman]

Oh, great idea. How 'bout attaching (I dunno how, superglue although I don't know if its toxic,) a magnet to the bottom of the slate? Then, take an opposite magnet and put it under your tank. You'd need a good size magnet, but it may work.

[NJ Devils Fan]

What is I wanted to move the wood? That would be an incredible pain to get super glue off.

[NJ Devils Fan]

Hey wetman, your idea worked. I took one of my dad's little granet award thingies he got for like perfect attendence for 5 years in a row, put it in a zip-loc bag, folded the bag and put a rummber band around it. The thing was very small and dense(about 3"x 2"). I put half on the slat piece and the other half I covered with sand. The wood is staying down now. Thanks for the tip.