How long should I soak my driftwood in concentrated saltwater?
Trying to kill all the creepy crawlies and other bad guys.
Trying to kill all the creepy crawlies and other bad guys.
Brining Driftwood
- Thread starter john73738
- Start date
i find boiling water in a kettle works well and puting the drift wood in your bath tub and filling it works very welll i normaly soak it for a good few hours sometimes even 2 to 3 weeks if it leach's also helps get rid of any of that yellow crap that can leach from the wood called tannin it wont harm your fish at all just makes your water look very dirty but as for the creepy crawly's ive always use boiling hot water and soaked it but im guessing salt wont hurt if anything will help if u add salt i would just wash it all off after would depending on what fish u have
xDCxSMOKE;4203931; said:
Punctuation is your friend!
I usually soak my driftwood until it stops turning the water tea colored. Some wood takes 6 or 8 water changes, and some wood only takes 2 or 3. I change the water every few hours at first, and if its a really tannin rich piece I'll let it soak for a day or two between water changes. Honestly, its just about how yellow you're OK with your water getting.
As far as creepy crawlies, boiling water works well. I don't have any specific data on how long it would take to kill unwanted guests with salt water, but I'd probably let it soak for a day, and then a couple of days of fresh water to de-salt it.
Boiling is more popular than a salt soak, although the turbulance of boiling can weaken wood where the salt bath will help 'cure' the wood. Thus I promote a salt bath over boiling for 'killing the creepy crawlies'.
The hotter the water the more effective it will be at removing the Tannins. Thus boiling water will be most effective, hot water also works well.
The salt concentration should make the water more salty than ocean water. With such a concentration a 24 hour soak should kill just about anything. 48 hours surely will.
There is no way to suggest how long it will take to reduce the Tannins. Every piece of wood is different.
The hotter the water the more effective it will be at removing the Tannins. Thus boiling water will be most effective, hot water also works well.
The salt concentration should make the water more salty than ocean water. With such a concentration a 24 hour soak should kill just about anything. 48 hours surely will.
There is no way to suggest how long it will take to reduce the Tannins. Every piece of wood is different.
i soaked a piece for about two weeks (big thick piece), then i boiled it to sterilize it.
its still got a little yellow to it. so remember the thicker the piece, the longer the soaking/boiling.
also remember, the yellow (tannin) will drop your ph a little bit. otherwise it is not bad for your fish.
its still got a little yellow to it. so remember the thicker the piece, the longer the soaking/boiling.
also remember, the yellow (tannin) will drop your ph a little bit. otherwise it is not bad for your fish.
the prob;em with boiling water is that if you have a large piece of wood, you'll need to boil the kettle hundreds of times to change the water a few times and have it completely submerged. Plus 3000W a boil means a heck of a lot of electricity...it will be the most expensive bogwood u ever used. Cold water works just a well, just takes a little longer. If your patient just leave the wood soaking for a few weeks and forget about it. I've never had any problems doing that. Just dont use rotting wood and get all the bark of an u'll be fine. Dont think salt's really necessary either
Somewhere on MFK is a thread where a guy used a 55gallon drum and a fire pit outside to boil some seriously huge pieces of driftwood. He had pictures and everything.