Choosing the right driftwood

yhbae

yhbae

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Aug 5, 2003
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I've been looking for some driftwood pieces without much luck so far. Where I live near the water, all wood pices are rather small, and when I go near the park, there are lots of dead wood, but most of them are quite soft. This is certainly softer than those I saw in the LFS.

Is it possible to still use wood that are not "rock hard" in an aquarium? I will boil them for hours and take some tan out before dropping it in the aquarium, but if I put some strength to the piece, I can break some crumbs off quite easily... I don't think think it will disintegrate by itself if you don't apply force to it though...

Appreciate any feedback!
 
Wood that hasn't had time to weather, or is a soft wood to begin with, will not be appropriate for a tank. Landscaping wood is a good example--often, these peices are nicely shaped, but are soft wood, and they won't ever last submerged.

I would rather buy the wood from a LFS that deal with issues like soft woods, contaminants, etc. If you look at the wood, and it doesn't seem stong enough to you, it probably isn't. Wood the crumbles with a bit of pressure damp or dry will likely start crumbling very quickly when soaked.
 
Check out lakes and dams or ponds with well defined shores. I get my driftwood from a dam and pond close by, and I have a larger selection. I don't know about other lfs, but the two by me charge 20+ for a good piece of driftwood... I'd rather spend that on plants or equipment, especially if I can collect my own.

Also, try to avoid soft woods (Pine, Hemlock, Etc), not only will they leek pitch into your tank, but they rot fast.
 
dumb question about drfit wood

how do you hold your drift wood down.. I liv eon a lake and have a bunch of the stuff.. I tried to soak mine to get it heavy but it still floats.. I have alot of cypress drift wood...the peic eI would like to use is pretty big and just pops right up when you try and use something to hold it down.
 
Duck, get a large piece of slate and drill a hole in it and your wood. Use a stainless steel screw and screw your wood to the slate. You can bury the slate under your gravel if you don't like the way it looks. Or you could use a wide tupperware container, drill 2 holes in it and 1 in the driftwood and attach the two with some tie wraps. Bury the tupperware under the gravel and use the gravel in the tupperware as your weight.
 
I like Mopani and Swahala driftwood. It looks very unique, and it sinks. You need nothing to "hold it down".... Unless you plan a visit to Africa, you need to get it online, or at a good LFS. HTH..
 
I'm going to be looking for some on Lake Erie this morning.

Hopefully I can find some decent pieces.
 
All wood has some soft and hard areas. As it weathers, the soft areas erode, giving you the neat shapes. If you find wood that has very soft spots, you're halfway there. Use some sort of scraping tool and remove as much of the soft stuff as possible, then boil and scrape some more, then soak in a tub in the backyard till not so much tannins are coming out and the wood sinks. I found when a piece was giving off excessive tannins, there was more soft stuff rotting and ready for removal. The tannins don't come from the real hard pieces.

As someone else stated above, do not use pine or other softwoods.
 
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