What About Driftwood?

[stingray4540]

That's awesome!
Yeah, the sprouting leaves is because you didn't season it long enough. A few weeks isn't enough, you should let wood sit for a year to properly dry it out. Of course, you should take proper precautions to prevent spliting, like covering cut ends(end grain) with wax. This may slow the seasoning process a little, but keeps it from drying too fast from one point and causing spliting.
Once the wood has sat long enough, then, as others suggested, you should boil it to kill any nasties and help get rid of some of the tannins.

As you have found, you don't always need to fully dry your wood(or use dead wood), as long as the sap isn't poisonous to the fish. Does anyone know for a fact what(if any) sap is harmful to fish? I suspect pine, cedar and fur sap would be a problem, but I have never tried it to find out. From what I can tell it seems most hardwoods are ok. Anyone have any knowledge about this subject?

P.S. I just thought I'd add my thoughts here for anyone who finds this thread in the future. I think it's great that you updated it too. When doing research I often find threads like this that end with post #7, and I'm left wondering if it worked, or was a failure, and don't know if I should try it or not, lol.

P.P.S. Where's the fish?! The tank looks empty...

 

[Star_Rider]

there is quite a bit of information around wood in aquariums.. much of it is conjecture as I have not seen research surrounding this.

most hardwoods are safe(operative word 'most') especially true when it is aged and has been soaking.
Cypress and cedar(softwood) is often used and the same is true of them. Many of your Pines' are also safe if they are aged and especially if they have been soaking.
what is more difficult it trying to determine which species you have found in your adventures looking for wood.
I currently use Cypress, cedar, pine as well as mopani.
I have not encounter any difficulties.
when in doubt. use aged wood and if you can find it one that has been soaking in a known good water source. around here we have freestone rivers and streams fed by glacial runoff.. aka clean water(relative term) and boil or heat the wood

 

[ZorroNet]

There are currently 12 glowlight tetras in there. I'll see about snapping a pic after my weekend maintenance.


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[saxenamohitm]

Hey,
I'd got a piece of wood chopped off by some villagers for firewood and i took it back home to try to use as a driftwood.. it is hardwood, about 24" in circumference, looks like a miniature log.. I struggled with it for 9-10 months, soaked it in boiling hot water every other day, weighed it down, scrubbed it like every week and got it to finally stop leeching tannins and sink by itself. All the efforts were worth it cuz finally it was good enough to be used in my tank, and i used it for 2 years in my tank. But last year i had to relocate and without a fish tank i had to keep the wood aside. I'm again in the process of setting up a new tank and i wanted to use the old piece of wood i had. But now it doesnt sink on its own (offcourse it wont after keeping it dry for almost 14-15 months) and i soaked it in a barrel full of water for a couple of days ago trying to prep it for my tank and its starting to leech again.. I find this odd because i've used this wood for 2 continuous years in my tank and it never leeched in there...

On a side note, as a newbie i'm under the impression that the wood needs to be able to sink on its own to be really ready for a tank and be called a driftwood. Though i've seen plenty of people just putting it in the tank not bothering about how well the wood has aged and in majority of the cases they are happy with the results.

Sorry for intruding on this thread, thought i might add this to the discussion

 

[ZorroNet]

No intrusion at all! I had a few pieces that I got dry from my MIL that were in her hermit crab tank previously. I was new then too and looking for answers. I floated them for a month or so, and when they started sinking a little bit, I dug them down into the gravel so they were fully submerged. It took a few more weeks, but this really sped the process because of increased water coverage and pressure. You can also weight them down by screwing a piece of ceramic or glass tile to the base and then burying the tile in the substrate. That's how I instantly sunk my crape myrtle tree.


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[ZorroNet]

P.S. If you use the tile method, use a stainless steel screw. Some metals leach too.


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[duneenworywifit]

I used silicone for my driftwood.GE brand #1,dont use #2.