Drift wood

[soccermouth]

If you get drift wood from a lake or something whats the best way to get rid of the brown that leeches out?

[joe kool]

TIME ...

no seriously ... that's about it ... you can try bleaching or boiling (which I reccomend anyway boil it for 10 min or longer to "sterialize" it if it's too big to boil pour boiling water into a container big enough to hold it and keep pouring fresh hot water an couple times better safe than parasite ridden tank!)


If you bleach remember to rinse it well ... then rinse it again ... then, you guessed it rinse it again .. then again .. let it completely dry out in the sun ... then rinse it again ... now "maybe" it'll be "ok" to put in the tank ... after you coat it with something like stress coat or a chlorine remover of your choice ... maybe!

when in doubrt give the sniffer test .. if you still smell bleach ... even faintly ..it'll be BAD NEWS!

[maxpayne_lhp]

Well, right! Boil it over several times. Doing that, you get rid of unwanted things and make it able to sink down into the water.
And, you should choose pieces of wood that look like died a long time ago, the progresses are easier.
Some would rather to apply their own coating of some kind.

[shev]

make sure it's the right kind of wood. and boil it for a very long time, then boil it again. boiling not only kills pathogens asepticly so it doesnt leave any toxic materials behind, and it helps it sink. dont use pine, cedar or greenwood.

[Mr Aquarium]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...r/12-16-04.jpg

Now that you have seen what my tank was like a month ago.....Everything in there is River/Lake/Creek Driftwood.......I'm sorry, I am not going to Pay anything for a piece of wood when I can spend four times less in gas and bring home a truck load of it.....And the pieces of "&%#)" <word I can;t use here) in the LFS are just plain UGLY....I'm talking cyoty ugly......
The big pieces in there, I Did Not Boil....Both Pieces I did put in a 5g bucket and had hot water on them several times during a week or so......IMO, it did absolutely NOTHING........took the sand and any debrie off it was all......I rinsed um in hot water once more....added suction cups to the places need for the placement i wanted, and let um go.....most of the small stuff was just rinced in hot water and added'
Not a piece like this one.......
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...rium/pict9.jpg
I do Boil, as the ones like that are mostly water soaked when I find them....But the regular hard smooth type that have been laying on the banks for a good while that are Dry...rinse um off...leave the set for a couple weeks in the deciding pile "pile to decide if they will be keepers or sellers" then rinse off once more and drop them in the tank....
IMHO,,,,I feel the driftwood descusions are over rated....I have not killed a single fish yet with my methods of cleanign driftwood....But i have been doing it for many years and I know what is safe n what is not...
My wood to leach out color and made my tank look even more natural, But a month of 15-20% weekly water changes took care of that.....and there was 14/15 pieces total in that picture...
The wood I sell, is useable without boiling,,,,but i say in the descriptions it should be soaked or boiled to have that base covered....
But I am going on again, so i will end it here......if you wanna ask me something, I will be more then happy to try my best to answer it.....

[thebestofindica]

Where is the best place online to buy driftwood that will sink right when i open the package??? I bought a piece from a LFS, good piece, had a chunk of slate on the bottom and it still wouldnt sink. I want something that looks good and will sink right away so I can rinse it and drop it in.

[maxpayne_lhp]

Sometimes they sell these things unresonably costly, so I'd rather to make it myself, as it's not difficult at all. Just follow the steps provided above and ... there you go. But, telling the truth, finding driftwood is getting hard these days!

[aquariumfishguy]

I like Drs. Foster & Smith online - I have bought several pieces of their new "African Driftwood". It looks great, doesn't leach (not in any of my aquariums).

They also sell fake pieces, which look just as real somehow.

[soccermouth]

Thanks to everyone that gave advice it is much appreciated. I'll try to update you all later if I end up with a good piece.