mountaintop driftwood?

S

spiffish

AC Members
Sep 14, 2004
54
0
0
This weekend I was hiking on a friend's property in pennsylvania. I came across some old twisted root material that would be beautiful in my new 46g aquarium. I took a few pieces home and chopped off any rotting material and trimmed them down to a nice size. This is when I realized that the wood was something like yellow pine. The root wood is very dense, and smells of pine. I boiled some of it for 20 mins or so, and a small amount of sap boiled out.

Is this wood safe to use in my community tank? Will it affect any levels (ph, etc) that I should be aware of? I plan to wash the wood again, and soak for a good amount of time, clean again, etc.

Anyone else find anything in nature for their tank?

-spiff
 
If it were just a piece of wood I'd just boil it and not worry. However, you say it was formerly roofing material. That being the case, it could easily be "treated" against rot, termites, etc. If it was treated with anything toxic it probably won't boil away. Seems too risky to me.
 
They didn't say anything about roofing material hun...

The pine will most likely continue to exude sap, making it a bad choice for an aquarium decoration unfortunately. Someone may know a way to coat it and seal it though.
 
thanks for the replies :)

Yup, its no roofing material though ;)

The only way I was getting any sap was by boiling it for a pretty long time. I will see how it does when soaking for a week... The sap only seemed to be even close to present when it was being boiled.
 
I've tried to boil and soak away the pungency of coniferous wood before... without luck, even on a small peice. Maybe Dapple has an idea though... it may be possible to coat it with a clear epoxy paint or something, to seal everything in. (Mind you, it then may not get waterlogged, wouldn't be a good wood source for plecos, wouldn't provide as good a micohabitat for leeetle bugs, wouldn't provide tannins or water softening/buffering... I spose it depends what you want it for. I just stay away from coniferous wood.

Even if you are not SEEING sap when you boil it... if you can smell the piney scent easily, that means something is leaching out...

..mind you, even if it is leaching something... I've never actually seen science, or even heard anyone say that coniferous wood actually harmed thier fish.... comments anyone?
 
hehehe, funny thing is, I read that as "roof" material at first too... then I re-read it, then I read the replies, hehehe....

ok, but as far as the pine wood is concerned..... I wouldn't use it.... seems there's too many "ifs" for me, making it too much of a risk. (of course this is in my opinion)
 
No Conifers

Hey Spif -

go back a page or two and read my original post titled "Natural Wood" (dated 8/20) - I had some of the same questions as you. There is a link in one of the posts that answered my questions, and then I emailed the guy to clarify the last one.

Bottom line is - he says no conifers - except cypress - becuz they exude sap for years and years, and even tiny amounts can be harmful.

Put that interesting piece of pine on a bookshelf!

HTH - Mary
 
I use 4 large chunks of drift wood in my tank. All where collected from the columbia river on the oregon/washinton border. All were weathered and sunbleached. All smelled heavly of Evergreen when cut for placment. The wood has been in the tank for 4 months, since setup. I've seen no ill affects on my fish. All are growing nicely with no deformatys or deaths.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom