XXL Driftwood Supplier?

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Legacy

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 12, 2006
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Hacienda Heights
Hi everyone,

I know a lot of you have really large tanks so I'm hoping someone will know where I can get some XXL sized driftwood for my 200G Brackish Paludarium. I need some branchy or root pieces that will mimic a mangrove swamp scene for my archerfish. I'm also trying to get my hands one Mangrove/Caribbean driftwood instead of Malaysian if at all possible.

I spent some time building a 3D background out of styrofoam+concrete so I wouldn't need to do this driftwood thing, but the background lacks realism and that's what I'm really going for. I've already tried out www.floridadriftwood.com as well as Ted's Fishroom, but floridadriftwood wont return my emails.

Anyone have any good ideas?
Thanks,
Dave
 
Howdy,

I always get mine from a local stream :thumbsup:

HarleyK




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I'm not too sure how I feel about using wood from my local lakes. I might be able to collect some stuff that washed up on the beach but even that stuff is even more contaminated.

I was hoping to find something that might fit in a little better with my brackish inhabitants.
 
all wood was "wild" at one time:)
I agree with HarleyK :grinyes:
 
Legacy said:
I'm not too sure how I feel about using wood from my local lakes. I might be able to collect some stuff that washed up on the beach but even that stuff is even more contaminated.
Click to expand...

As rallysman said.
The only difference between self-harvested and purchased wood is that you have no clue where the purchased wood is from .... :eek:





.
 
I just collected a large amount of driftwood, some small and some that were just barely big enough to get in the back hatch of my car, even after trimming. all i do is put some water in the tub and scrub away getting all the loose bark off and all the dirt and loose debri you can soak it in really hot water(as hot as it will come out of the tap, and that might get rid of some of the bacteria i am not sure what temp the bacteria will die at but it should kill some of it anyway i have been doing this for awhile and it works, also if it looks like the wood may have been sitting and has holes all over it might have bugs inside it so stay away from those. and it is practically free, except for the fair amount of time spent scrubbing, and we all know how expensive "store bought" driftwood is.
good luck with finding the pieces you want
 
I agree wil rallysman and HarleyK on native driftwood. You also have a lot more different types you can choose and they are free.
But some LFS do have large pieces. Not too long ago I purchased a XXXL driftwood (or something like that) but it wasn't cheap.
 
I heard from a friend the best way to treat native driftwood is to first pressure wash it (removes dirt and loose bits and pieces) then soaking it in the hot water. Anyone else pressure wash their driftwood?
 
Howdy,

I am getting a bit lazy and copy/paste my old reply ;) If you want more info, use our search option and you'll find tons of stuff :thumbsup:. Okay, here's my copy/paste:




Native driftwood is great - if you know what you're doing.
- the river has to be clean, no industry along the shores!
- the wood has to be well weathered, washed out to the fiber. If it has bark, it's too young. It needs to look like it's spent years and years in the water
- only use wood from flowing bodies of water, never from stagnant areas.
- do not use wood that was covered with mud, it must be located in the stream
- Stay away from conifers. Look at the vegetation along the stream and upstream closely!

When I harvest driftwood, I first hose it down with a high-pressure cleaner (carwash). Then, I soak it in saturated salt solution (in the bath tub) for three days (daily fresh). That disinfects it all the way. Then I soak it for a couple of days in daily fresh water to de-salt it. Boiling is most often not an option when you deal with Monster-Tank-sized driftwood.

And off it goes into my tank. Generally, you have to weigh it down for a short period of time. I tie mine down with fishing line: weighing it down with rocks tied to its bottom. Do not pile rocks on top of your wood, since it might pop up to float and the rocks fall against the sides of your tank. Depending on the depth of your tank and the buoyancy of the wood, it might even hit your canopy

Self-harvested wood is a lot of fun. I got my latest piece from a canoeing trip :thumbsup:


HarleyK
 
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