coloring driftwood

RockabillyChick

RockabillyChick

Kilt-lifter
Nov 5, 2005
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Washington state
the only kinds of wood we have around here is pine, which is very light in color. i want my wood in my tank to be dark. is there any fish-safe paint or stain i can use to make the wood dark?
 
RockabillyChick said:
the only kinds of wood we have around here is pine, which is very light in color. i want my wood in my tank to be dark. is there any fish-safe paint or stain i can use to make the wood dark?
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Not really, no....you could stain it, then seal it with a varathane sealant, or paint it with marine epoxy paint, but it would look like hell, and would lose that natural wood appearance, texture, and benefit...plus, it would float, since the wood would have to be completely dry before you sealed it, and since water could not get in afterwards, would never waterlog and sink.

Perhaps you should just go buy some nice, dark, Malayan driftwood.
 
i have malaysian driftwood. i hate it. i am attempting a takashi amano inspired aquascape and he uses mostly long thin branchy pieces of wood, and pine has a lot of nice branchyness, but amano also uses wood that is very dark in color to contrast to the brightness of the plants. malaysian driftwood is NOT branchy. i am actually looking for about 6 or so 1" diameter branches, relatively straight between 12" and 24" long with a few forks.

are there any north american hardwood trees that have dark colored wood?
 
what about maple? there's lots of maple, oak, etc. around here. i wonder if i could find some walnut.....that would be perfect.
 
ok, new question. can i just use dead wood off a tree, instead of actual driftwood that's been floating in a lake somewhere? would i have to strip the bark, or can i leave the bark on? obviously i would clean it and soak it for a few weeks first
 
you could do that..however..you will most likely need to sink it for a long time..the big benefit to driftwood is it has been soaking for a long time..many of the saps..etc have been leached out of the wood.


btw..in time the pinewood would get dark..we have mostly pine here and most of the pine that has been sitting in the rivers/lakes have become darkened.
pine (douglas fir..psuedotsuga menziessi) grey when exposed to weather.
 
the branches i pulled off my maple tree today have been dead for at least 7 years and probably longer because they were long dead when we moved in 7 years ago. so there's no sap or anything in them. i scrubbed them with a toothbrush in plain tap water and then let them dry in the sun. next i'm going to scilicon them to a piece of slate, as they are rather thin branches and i really don't think they could take a drill. then i'm going to let them soak in my moms koi pond for a while.
 
I haven't seen it posted here, so I have a suggestion for coloring your driftwood:
Boil it with tea

I have no idea if there COULD be some sort of tea out there that is harmful to fish, but from what I understand if you use plain old natural tea there should be no difference to your fish.

I am still soaking my first driftwood which, incedentally, wont fit in my biggest pot, so I can't comment on how well this works.

If you're like me and don't have a pot big enough, you might be able to bathe it in tea (ie. baste it like a turkey) although I'm sure this wouldn't be as effective.
 
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