Can you Id this wood

[Jeff5347]

I was driving around today and found a new LFS to use. While there I found a piece of wood (only piece) ( paid only 5 bucks) that they said someone gave them as they were getting rid of their tank. I asked him what it was and he said he wasn't sure, maybe grape wood or grapevine wood. Curious if anyone can I'd what type it really is. Thanks for any help

Dry







After pressure washing

 

[BIG-G]

It's shape looks like grapevine the two colors looks like mopani though.

That's really helpful wasn't it. Sorry

 

[Jeff5347]

Lol no problem. That's the same reason I questioned this. 2 different colors mopani but the shape grape. After power washing it def cleaned it up. It has been sitting dry for some time before I got it. I haven't boiled it due to its to large for any pot I have. Think not boiling will be a problem. I have it soaking now to water log it

 

[tarheel96]

Nice looking piece of driftwood, especially wet! If it's mopani it will probably be the heaviest piece of wood you've ever picked up, and it looks pretty large so you'd notice the difference.

I boil wood, leaves, cones, anything before adding them to my tanks. I've boiled the end sections of large pieces of wood and then turned them to another side to boil another section until the entire piece had been submerged but yours might be too big for that.

If so, you might cover the surface with 3% hydrogen peroxide to sterilize the surface and then casually wipe in off after a few minutes. The H2O2 will break down into water and oxygen in a matter of hours so there's no need to wash it afterwards before adding it to your tank.

Hope this helped.

 

[Jeff5347]

I have the piece in a 15 or 20 gallon Rubbermaid. It doesn't feel excessively heavy for its size. Its only been in about 5 hrs and I can see the water has turned to tea..and that's with no water movement or heat. I might try like you said and boil it. I'll have to get one of those kitchen pans that are like 18 inches deep and just keep rotating the branch ends.
With boiling what is the process. Meaning how long should each end boil for and should it be done a few times.
Ex. So if I had one that fit full in the pot ..boil for say 2 hrs and them let it cool and dry and repeat or is once enough. Does boiling also speed up tannin release and water logging?
Thanks for all the input so far

 

[tarheel96]

Soak it in hot water ... the hotter the better. More tannins are released in hot water. When the water gets stained, dump it out and add hot water from the faucet. If you have a lid that fits the Rubbermaid container, use it to keep the heat in.

Yes, boiling releases more tannins but you can't boil it long enough to remove all the tannins. Soaking in hot water will take care of that. When it's not releasing tannins as bad then boil it.

I've always boiled 1-2" thick pieces on high for around 30 minutes and 4" thick pieces for an hour. This is probably overkill but I've never had anything at all grow on my driftwood.

 

[Hendre]

Some nice mopani. Leeches tannins FOREVER, almost a year and it's still going