Driftwood Dominated Tanks

Good luck with the tree stumps and logs. I have doubts because of my experience with collecting driftwood and unsuccessfully making it suitable for my fish tanks. I hope it works out for you though. So, how big is your tank?
 
chefkeith said:
I've tried making driftwood unsuccessfully. I had it soaking underwater with some weights for about a year and it still wouldn't sink by itself,. Also after a year of soaking it still made the water smell skunky. I ended up chucking the wood and wishing I didn't waste the time and energy trying to DIY.

I ended up purchasing a few hundred dollars worth (around 50 nice sized pieces) of Malaysian Driftwood and couldn't be happier with the purchase. Maylaysian driftwood is much more beautiful than anything you'll find locally. Maylaysian drifwood will sink without any weights also.
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Aquarium services has another type of driftwood beside their Maylasian driftwood thats realy heavy but 2 tone whereas the malasian is onlt 1 colour & more textured. they both cost 4.99 a pound but the Malasian is lighter so you get more.it has a wierd name like mabalu or kadami or something sorry 1 forgot the name but its their @ big al's
 
chefkeith said:
Good luck with the tree stumps and logs. I have doubts because of my experience with collecting driftwood and unsuccessfully making it suitable for my fish tanks. I hope it works out for you though. So, how big is your tank?
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55 gallon tank. I don't have high expectations either but I am going to give it a try. Who knows I could get lucky and it might work out for me. The stumps i am going to use are only 4-3" wide but the root structure is really nice looking. I will test for the big 3 for several weeks after adding the wood. If anything spikes, out goes the wood. Then online I go for some real driftwood!!!
 
lousybreed said:
also nice stumps/huge driftwood are not $8. The stores around here have them going for 80-120....
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Maylasian sinkwood is nice but usually have sharp edges.The Mopani sinkwood is even nicer if it has nice hollows.Ive seen chunks of mopani that are solid ,therefore not as good as the crevasy maylasian ,but Mopani selected right is it ! Top Choice (available @ big al's) some pieces of both Mopani 7 Maylasian sinking driftwoods float. Bamboo shrimp love the floaters & I just got some jumbo ones from there 2day around 8 bucks each but 3 inches long ,neet!
 
lousybreed said:
also nice stumps/huge driftwood are not $8. The stores around here have them going for 80-120....
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ok the Mopani has a smooth edge thats perfect for useing on top of Maylasian driftwood because although 2 tone will darken to the same tone as each other The underside is knotty & dark brown even dry.The jagged Maylasian is nicely concealed below the Mopani unless your after that rugged cliffs look (wich ive seen look amazing when placed rite on it's own) .the Mopani is used by fish to relax like leaves on large plants they chill on the smooth surface.
 
i have been slackin lately here are some poor pics but they are the best i can do. all was collected by my factory. water parameters didn't change except slight pH dip......

left driftwood.jpg right driftwood.jpg center driftwood.jpg
 
it's okay if you can't get it to sink. All you have to do is take some Aquarium safe silicone and attach it to a piece of slate and that should do the trick. it's really easy and all you have to do is bury the slate under your substrate and vioala.
 
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