Collected Driftwood

[Kcameron]

Hey all,

I have a bunch of old driftwood that was collected from a beach about 12 years ago. I have had it soaking for a two months and have boiled it a couple times as well. I am just wondering about any danger that may be involved with adding it to my tropical tank. its a 55 gallon med-soft aquarium with some small cichlids and a yabbie. would the residual salt and pathogens be a problem?

thanks for any advice.

 

[Toby_H]

Boiling it... then baking it.. is the best way to kill any parasite, fungus or bacteria that may be living in it...

You can "bake it" in the sun or in the oven... if using the sun I suggest putting it on a black surface and leaving it in the sun all day long, move it to remain in direct sun if necessary... If baking it don't go overboard with temperature... 150~175*F is fine...

Boiling in salt water is a good idea, as the salt helps to "cure" the wood. So be it wood does not "cure" but what is meant by this is that the wood becomes less prone to rotting... Having been collected from a salt water shoreline is a huge advantage...

In my experience, wood collected from lakes & streams, when boiled/baked, still typically end up with something goofy growing on it and it gets thron in the trash. If yours came from a saltwater shoreline you may have better luck...

 

[Kcameron]

sounds good, but will it harm my salinity levels or any other chemistry in the tank?

 

[Toby_H]

The amount of salt retained within the wood, especially since it's been recently boiled, will be so small it's negligible...

It will release some level of tannic acid, which is utterly harmless with the exception of it’s mild effect on PH / KH… Being an acid, it will counter balance the alkalinity (KH) of the water and once that is low enough it will then begin dropping the PH…

All driftwood does this and it’s typically offset during our weekly water changes. If by chance your KH is naturally very low and you want your PH to remain at or above 7, you can add some buffer such as baking soda to the water to increase the KH…

 

[Kcameron]

ok, maybe ill try it out. if the chemistry is offset ill take it out

 

[Kcameron]

would adding baking soda change my GH? i wish to increase my KH (its at 2dh) but my GH seems fine (about 6dh)

 

[Toby_H]

General Hardness (GH) is about Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) such as minerals (mainly calcium and magnesium ions) and metals...

Carbonate hardness (KH) is the measure of alkalinity, which is directly related to carbon, which is affected by baking soda...


So in short... no baking soda should not affect GH...

 

[Kcameron]

ok, i wasnt sure if the baking soda would increase both being that its calcium carbonate (calcium->GH, carbon->KH)