Driftwood Problem

[Captain Hook]

I'm presoaking a fairly large piece of mopani driftwood I bought at a local store. It's about 18" long and pretty much straight. After it's been in water for a while the water sticks like rotten eggs or something. I've been changing the water once or twice a week for the past month at least.

Is there a problem with the wood or is this normal? It will be for a 72 gallon so I don't want to make any costly mistakes.

 

[MyShrimpDied]

I havent really heard of the water smelling bad, just turning different colors. Have you tried boiling it?

The piece that I have was to big for the pot that I was gonna use. So I boiled it with one end sticking out, and then after 12 minutes flipped it, so the end that was sticking out of the water, was now in the water. Haven't had any problems with my piece since.

~ MyShrimpDied

 

[Blinky]

I've heard of people baking their wood - it's the same principle as boiling, heating it to kill any nasties living within. I haven't done this, and have no idea if it works as well as boiling.
Some people put bleach in the soak water, but you'd have to rinse REALLY thoroughly, soak in clear water for a few days with dechlorinator afterwards to make sure all the bleach was out so as not to poison your fish.
I've got driftwood and bogwood, never had any bad smells, but I haven't used Mopani. It's beautiful stuff, hope you can rid it of the smell.

 

[Captain Hook]

Blinky you're right about mopani being nice. This piece is long and full of twists and knots. It looks really good so I'm hoping I can use it.

I forgot to mention that I poured boiling water on it a couple times when I first got it. Then soaked, then boiled it for a little while, and have been soaking it since. It still stains the water a lot but that doesn't really worry me, it's just the rotten egg smell that bothers me.

 

[happychem]

What are you soaking it in? Your empty tank? Is there substrate in the tank?

Rotten eggs is characteristic of hydrogen sulfide (H2S), actually, H2S is why rotten eggs smell like rotten eggs.

H2S is rapidly oxidized in air. It's characteristic of anoxia where sulphur reducing bacteria use sulphate as an oxidant in their respiration.

So the question is, where's the anoxic condition? What's rotting?

Definitely try boiling it again, at least 5 minutes to each submersed section.

 

[Captain Hook]

It's just a rubbermaid container with about 7 gallons of water. Guess I will have to try boiling again to get rid of this smell.

 

[happychem]

If that doesn't work, try bleaching it. Just remember to rinse thoroughly with tons of dechlorinator.