Driftwood questions

[rdracer66]

Hi All
Newbie here, with a couple of questions
after buying my 55 gallon tank and getting it setup now with 13 cichlids and a sucker fish, i want to add some driftwood
i look on ebay and prices are moderate to high
and the lfs is always high prices, my question is
all these people on like ebay im sure are just finding them in there local creek's or river or??
there's a lot here in colorado where i am so i was thinking about going on some hikes this wknd, and go looking for some drift wood, my question is what do u do to prepare it for the tank ? do u take the bark off or leave it on or either ?
and the guy i got the tank from gave me this really nice one with even a slate mount but i have to have like 3 huge rocks on it to keep it submeressed about how long u think before i can get rid of the rocks that are on top of it ??
thanks for any help !!

Rd

 

[dattack]

Yes most of the driftwood on Ebay are found my people next to their backyard.  Unfortunately I live in the city and usually you can't find driftwood unless you cut down your neighbor's trees.
;D

Yes you can go to a nice hike and find some dried up wood.  If the wood is submersed under water for a few months, then they won't float after that.  I would say it's going to take a few months before you can remove the slate.

If you find some in your backyard, just let it soak in water with a bit of bleach to kill some organisms and let is soak for a few days.  Rinse again with just freshwater and you are set.  If it doesn't float, then you are going to have to screw it to a piece of slate with stainless steel screws.

 

[huck]

I recommend you check out bigalsonline.com for driftwood, they sell it for fairly cheep, different sizes and everything.  And its already prepared, all you gotta do is soak it.

 

[aznpanther98]

here's what i do and i learned from another board discussion i think it was on here somewhere but anyways let it soak in some hot water and just dump the water out when it cools and put more hot water, u can probally even put them in a pot and boil it on a stove hehe anyone for soup?  ;D well anyways just keep doing it till it stops floating i put a large rock on the wood to keep it submerged in hot water it took me a lot of dumping and refilling of the bucket it works
u can use bleach at first but i think the hot water does the job of killing any organisms

 

[rdracer66]

Thanks for some info kinda concerned by one answer, what do u mean it wont be able to sink if it's already submerssed? wwhen finding it, also how do i boil something that is like over a foot tall ?? which is the one i currently have in my tank right now that i got from the guy who sold me the tank. It's huge i'll see if i can post a picture of it later, i wonder how long it's going to take to get it to stay underwater wihtout rocks, yes it does have  slate mount but....... no way in hell will it stay submerrsed withouth 3 huge rocks on it right now


Rd

 

[colesea]

Hmm, I just finally put driftwood in my tanks for the first time (to feed my clown plecos). I didn't buy it from any store, it was actually a piece I had lying around decrotive for years that I picked up from the beach one time.  Since it was already pretty well bleached of tannins (which is why driftwood found at the beach is great, it comes pre-leached ), I soaked it in dechlorinated hot water for a week. I was lucky, I have a ten gallon garbage pail at work reserved for the purpose of cleaning/soaking stuff. Every day it was emptied and refiled with hot -hot- water from the tap, and then I added libiral amounts of Aqua Plus.The stick is prettythin, about an inch in widest diameter, but a good twenty-four inches long. After the first day of soaking, it became pretty pliable, and I was able to bend and wedge it into the garbage can without it snapping on me. Snapping it was the hardest, I probably should've done that before I soaked it, since I literally had to twist the thing apart when I went to divide it to put it in two seperate tanks.

If the wood you have had already been used in a fish-tank, you probably don't have to go through the whole boiling/bleaching/cleaning process with it, though you might want to take it out and rinse all the dust off of it (if the tank isn't already set up). If you're using super large pieces, something you could do is bake it. Usually this involves getting out the hose, giving it a good soaking with the hose, and letting the sun dry it out, and doing that for a week. Of course, this requires certain weather conditions. If you have pieces you can't fit in a pot to boil, you could also bake them in your oven (just make sure to remember to get them totally wet and monitor to make sure you don't set fire to anything).  The worst part about driftwood is leaching out tannins, that can take a long time. Most people will pre-soak wood to do that, but if you can't, and you put it in your tank, you'll just have to keep doing water changes and adding fresh carbon until the color goes away. Some people like tannin colored water, so you may think that's cool, but it will also do some minor havoc to your pH, so you'll need to monitor that closely if you use unleached wood.

Soaking wood will definately help keep it submerged, as dry wood floats. If you can't pre-soak it and get it good and waterlogged before putting it in your tank, you'll have to use rocks and silicon to keep it submerged in the play you want it. My pieces, even after being soaked for a week, still needed to be wedged in decor to keep them from floating.
~~Colesea