Madrona and Other Woods For Tank Decor?

Cloudk said:

I was wondering if anyone knows how fresh wood would work?

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You do not want 'fresh' wood. It needs to be dead.

My understanding is that Madrone is actually pretty closely related to Manzanita which is used in aquariums. Ive seen some leave the red bark on but it will discolor the water. As long as you are dealing with a dead piece of wood and remove the bark you can use it.

CloudK - I sent you a PM, since we are both from WA

I say let nature do most of the work for you. Go to a local lake, pond, or river and find wood that has been submerged long enough to have had the bark stripped. Generally any log you find in that state has had any harmful saps and a vast majority of tannins removed. Simply find a piece or two (or 10!) that are visually appealing/fit your specifications and dry them out completely. Set them up in the sun for a week or two to kill any water born pathogens and insect larvae. Then all that is left is to do is re-waterlog them and you're good to go! If you've picked mature enough wood, tannin leaching should be minimal.

Figured I'd help out a fellow Washingtonian!

Instead of drying the wood in the sun, could a person just boil it to kill the unwanted elements?

Yes you could boil the wood, it's just not practical if you're collecting pieces for any aquarium larger than 20 gallons!

Oddball has the right idea though. Many people don't realize that there is a veritable menagerie of free tank decor available if you just go outside and do some exploring.