anchoring huge driftwood?

[Fishbert]

hey guys, little bit of a shameless plug but I finally got my huge piece of driftwood into my tank!!! it took some cutting... plenty of cutting.. but I got it in and it doesn't look too shabby imo. also, still takes up the entire thing! aha

specs are 48x24x31, ought to be right around 150g
stock is 6 red bellies, and with the recent addition of the wood a couple small Chinese alge eaters and a couple small plecos as well, I was hoping they might eat, or at least knock off some of the looser wood, but whatever.

anyway this thing is gigantic, easily 150 pounds dry if not more and enough that with nothing on top will push the glass canopy right up until it hits the center brace. right now I have about 7 sizeable pieces of slate on top of the piece and I don't really like the look, granted the waters so stained you might have a hard time seeing it in general, but I hope to thin some of that out soon.

without further ado, heres some pictures, not the greatest but convey whats going on fairly well

anyway, anything else I can try? and does anyone have a ballpark when this is going to get waterlogged again? I dragged it out of a river, cleaned it real well, and let it sit for a long time. I re-cleaned it before it went in... but it was really dry by then

 

[Fishbert]

hmm, pictures could have come out better... ill have to work on that. off to find the real camera! it really is a pretty stunning piece though.. I hope to plant the tank one it settles and stops leaching so much tannins

also the rocks are much more stable then it seems, no falling onto fish or thin sandy glass bottom will be happening anytime soon!

 

[wvance]

I had a piece of driftwood in a 40gal tall that I had some years back. What I did to anchor it was attach a piece of slate to it. I drilled a hole through the slate and used a wood screw to attach to the bottom of the driftwood. The slate was heavy enough to keep the wood on the bottom - plus, I was able to cover the slate with gravel so it wasn't visible.

 

[Rayne]

^ Thats exactly what I was going to suggest too. That piece may take months to become water logged completely so I would try to anchor it down instead of trying to weigh it down. It would look much better.. and would be safer for your tank bottom!

 

[prashan]

Upload a video please. That looks cool

 

[Fishbert]

ahhhh great idea, ill try and get some better photos up soon too, I'm on a borrowed computer, mine just broke