Where To Buy Driftwood

Have you considered collecting your own driftwood?

I know you have a lot of creeks, rivers, lakes in your area and you'd be amazed at what great things you will find by just walking up and down the banks of any nearby water. Look alongside the banks and under water too.

Here is a piece I found in a local stream around Birmingham Alabama. The amazing detail and numerous hiding holes are not even visible, but you can see that it is better than anything you see out there for sale at most any price

I've found the best stuff in smaller streams which pass thruogh hardwood forests, the kind you can easily wade across but might have some waist deep pools. I get all my rocks at the same place too.

You will often find piles of wood which have been washed up after small flooding events, or look under the water for submerged root pieces. It's worth a try. If you only collect rocks you're still ahead of the game.

Looks like my link didn't work, but try this for inspriation:

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=10980&cat=500&ppuser=12702

I collected the driftwood that I'm using now. Clean well and make sure there isn't any rot. You want something weathered: no live material or sap, avoid conifers or anything that smells piney or turpentiney.

The owner of the property may have something to say about collecting: parks and nature preserves tend to have rules about this sort of thing (they're generally opposed). Be aware of where you are.

In the past, I've gotten some very nice driftwood off Ebay for less than I see in most of the online stores and you generally get a much better pics of what you're buying. I'd tend to go that route for online.

My LFS sells their driftwood for $6/pound. Not a bad deal when considering the softs of some of it!

On Ebay, you can find alot, BUT go to driftwood city. http://stores.ebay.com/Driftwood-City
Its an ebay store, great prices and some pretty good pieces of driftwood. I also think she will actually try to find a specific size/type of wood for you if you tell her. This woman collects pieces from the Washington coastline. I got a huge piece weighing about 5 lbs, measuring about 24" or so, for like $11! I also bought a smaller one measuring about 13" on a piece of slate for like $6. Don't really have a good pic of the small one, but I have some decent ones of the large one, in all the pics its the huge one all the way to the right. In the full tank shot, its kinda dark, but the smaller piece is running from the back right tank up to the huge piece. And just a further way to judge the size, thats a pretty thick 7" RD in the pics.

http://beezer720.myphotoalbum.com/view_photo.php?set_albumName=album01&id=DSC00071_JPG
http://beezer720.myphotoalbum.com/view_photo.php?set_albumName=album01&id=Picture_015_jpg
http://beezer720.myphotoalbum.com/view_photo.php?set_albumName=album01&id=Picture_027_jpg


After shipping(like 7lbs worth of stuff) and she knocks money off if you buy multiple items, I paid $30!!!! I looked at the bottom of my little pieces of driftwood I bought in a lfs, I paid 35 for the two of them. So I really suggest you go to this place. Really easy and convenient and cheap. The huge piece of wood floated so I took apart one of the small weathered pieces of wood and used its big slate base to hold it down. Buying a piece of slate should the wood not sink will only cost you between 2-5 dollars depending on th size of the wood.

i got a really nice pieces of malaysian driftwood from petco for $9. its about 10 inches long, but really thick and has a very nice interesting shape.

Not sure what kind you are looking for, but www.bigals.com has some. I bought a piece a month or two ago, it looks pretty nice

www.ebay.com is pretty good they have a whole section on it you can clean it all yourself just boil it in water.(you have to do this no matter where you get the wood from) They have a nice selection too. It is a heck of a lot cheaper.