Turning live wood into drift wood?

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PurpleSmurf

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May 4, 2005
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Someone in the neighbor hood just had a tree cut down and I think I can go pilfer one of the larger pieces of trunk. There were some nice looking pieces, a few lengths of a 8"-10" diameter trunk split in half vertically. The only trouble is I can't see placing live wood into my tank ending well. How do you go about killing off the tree and getting it tank safe?

I'm think putting it in the oven, soaking it for a week in a 5g bucket with daily water changes followed by a 20 minute boil would do it... :huh:

Edit -- And as a random question: What would be a good "large" tank mate for 4 corys, two rams, and some snails? I like the smaller fish, but a large "school" or something or a fish 3"-4" would be much preffered. Tank size is 20 gallons.
 
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The issue is drying it out safely. You don't want the wood to contain any sap. Kiln drying would work, but I would be cautious about advising someone to dry wood in their home. You'd need to maintain low temps (no more 150F) for a long time, difficult at home. The fire danger would be not-keen.
 
I have heard from somewhere that before you go about the actual business of converting freshly cut wood to driftwood, you would be required to remove the bark
 
What kind of tree is it as well? (some you don't want to use, and I know a lot about trees thanks to some forestry classes) Remove the bark, and the easiest thing to do would be to set it in an area that gets a lot of sun, and leave it there for a month or so, making sure ya bring it in when it rains. OR do the oven thing, but only for say an hour at a time. Give it an hour every day or so for a month. More work than its worth in my opinion but whatever floats your boat, lol.
 
The wood probably won't sink. IMO, you'd be wasting your time and energy trying to turn fresh wood into driftwood. Malaysian Driftwood ain't cheap, but it's beauty is well worth the investment if you can find some at your LFS.
 
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You can get almost any kind of wood to sink, it just takes some time for it to become completely water logged. Softwoods (which aren't very dense and generally float, like Pines, Cedar, Tamarac that sort of thing) just take a while, but eventually they will sink. You should avoid soft woods because most of them have sap. I perfer (haven't gone from live to driftwood, but when I do find drift wood these are the species I prefer to use) Oaks, Locust,Ironwood, or Sugar Maple, they are all very dense, and rot resistant, as well as safe to use.
 
I think it was a maple, that or a dogwood.\\

I'll just save up and buy some online or at the LFS if they ever get anything nice in.
 
PurpleSmurf
I once came in here with a similar question, and folks out here thoroughly discouraged me from doing so (converting fresh wood to driftwood). And I guess they have a point too - it would be pointless to wait for that long for the wood to age (or whatever)
I bought a cool piece of driftwood the very next day :)
 
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