Curing driftwood?

[april_tiffany]

Do any of you have experience with collecting your own driftwood? I live near a large lake with some awesome driftwood but didn't know what special precautions needed to be taken to use it in a freshwater tank...do you steralize it in some way? Anybody know how? Also, if you collect driftwood from the ocean, what can you do to get the salt out?

[StacieA]

I've read other places that you can soak the wood for about 24 hours then let it dry out completely (or maybe it was the other way around...) you should be fine.

[Kasakato]

With any driftwood I get, I leave it out side to dry off for about 5 days. I then pour boiling water on it several time to kill off any thing still on the wood. The I bring it inside into a big rubbermaid tub filled with warm water. I let it soak in that until it sinks, replacing the water daily. It can take a while, but if you boil the wood in a pot or bake it at a low temp for 4-5 hours you can speed up the sinking process. But if you are boiling or baking be sure to watch it carefully because wood can catch fire.

[april_tiffany]

The darn thing is so big, this is gonna be tough...but thanks for the suggestions. Are there any types of wood that are no-no's?

[Kasakato]

Heres my 2sec list:
Driftwood
-Looks nice
-Needs to be cured

Bogwood
-Easy to buy
-Will sink right away
-Will lower pH

Mopane wood
-Heavy, like a rock :dance2:
-Dark spots
-$$$

Green wood
-AKA fresh wood, new wood
-BAD it has lots of toxic stuff

I know Im missing a few kinds, maybe someone can fill in.

[StacieA]

Oh, one thing worth mentioning...when I put my wood in the tank, it grew some slimey yuck stuff all over. Don't panic (like I did!) It's harmless and will go away on it's own. Mine has started to disappear and it's been about a week. I've read that it's a fungus that grows because when the wood is sterialized, the bacteria that usually eats that fungus is killed.

[Chill]

I have friend who boils his driftwood for 7 to 8 hours. I know another guy who soaks it for months. All seems like to much work for me so I just buy mine from the LFS. I worry to much about what contaminantes it may have picked up in the lake. A bit of pollution in a lake can be a bad thing the same amount in the confines of a tank can be a fatal thing.

Even with the store bought precured stuff you will still get the white fungus but that's harmless. Gross but harmless.

[Kasakato]

The store stuff is normally bogwood. It normally is attached to slate to weight it down. It will leach harmless brown tannins into your water though.

[barbus]

What I do usually is to scrap clean the wood, then soak it with 10% H2O2 solution for a week. All the gunk and yucky things will come off. Then, scrap it again and rinse well.

[april_tiffany]

Unfortunately a piece the size I want/need is $300++ at the LFS so I believe the effort of sterilizing it will be worth it. Now the hunt for a trashcan...

[Kasakato]

Ouch! How big? Like 5 feet?

[Chill]

Well then I guess it's worth the work. Like I said I know a guy who collected a massive piece off the beach (ocean) boiled it for 7 hours in the backyard over a bonfire and has had no problems with it. Don't know where you live or how your neighbors feel about bonfires! I can point you to a good article on another forum (is that a no-no? - hope not - if it is I apologize please forgive the new guy) http://69.44.152.177/showquestion.php?faq=2&fldAuto=34.

[Kasakato]

Thats ok. The more infomation we can give out, the better!

[april_tiffany]

Ouch! How big? Like 5 feet?


It's about 4 but it's also quite thick (a hollow cresty piece)...don't think it'll fit in the oven. I think I'm gonna get a big black trashcan and pour boiling water in it...I live at an apartment complex so something tells me the bonfire thing just won't work!

[Kasakato]

LoL, good luck! You can also soak it in the garbage bin.

[april_tiffany]

And another thing...I've seen alot of sites mentioning to soak it in saltwater to kill critters, but how do you make sure all of the salt has leached back out (and not into my tank!!!)

[Chill]

Hysterical. If you do try the bonfire go big. All the better to intimidate the other tenants. Living outside the civilized world does have it benefits sometimes. Good luck.

[Kasakato]

Dont do the saltwater thing. The hot water on the wood serveral times should kill anything.

[april_tiffany]

Yes I'm sure the humongous bonfire right off my patio will be a hit with my neighbors...not to mention we're under a burn ban! Considering I also own only one good sized pot, the boil process shall be SLLLLLLOOOOOW. Anybody living in the DFW area want to temporarily loan some pots :)