Collecting drift wood advise

[Sweety]

Hi all I could do with some advise on collecting drift wood. I know taking drift wood out of lakes or rivers in the best idea but in my area here in the UK my local rivers are very deep so getting to any wood will be very hard plus there is a good chance of fertilizers in the water off the surounding farms so I think this might be the last option open to me. As i'm only a couple of miles off the coast I wondered is collecting some drift wood off the beach would be an option. I know it would have to be scrubbed, soaked & boild to try & release any trapped salt etc but would it be safe. The other otpion I was thinking about was to cut a fresh branch off a tree & put it in a warm place in the house to dry it out as I have a few oak trees near by & we are in the middle of winter here so I know there is almost no sap flow into the branches.
What i'm after is quiet thin branches to replicate tree roots for a tank that is going to house Corydoras with leaf litter

 

[Gervahlt]

I don't see why either option wouldn't work (although I'm no expert). If you go with cutting the limb off the tree, you might consider having it kiln-dried somewhere. It would probably take longer to sink though.

 

[COG Commando]

Kiln drying would be the best option for fresh cuts, otherwise it'll take a very long time to dry out. Also, ocean driftwood is perfectly safe as long as the wood is boiled or baked to remove any unwanted hitchhikers.

 

[Sweety]

Thanks a lot for the replies i'll start having a look on the beach to see what's been washed up in the coves as we've had a few good storms & will have a look at these oak trees to see if there are any branches that look like roots. I'm not sure if there is anywhere near that has a kiln so I might try placing the cut branches over the top of the chimney of my patio stove

 

[smitty03281964]

Well cutting the fresh branch thing I do not even consider. I would just get wood from the river or beach and rinse it. That is all I have ever done and I have never had a problem.

 

[nomad]

^what he said^

 

[Sweety]

My local rivers can be upto 20ft deep & about 4ft deep at the edges, I had thought about the stream just down the road & had a look but it's still getting stuff dumped into it from the factories a few miles away & today there was an nice oil slick on the water. I think I might have to start travelling some distance to find a clean river

 

[Norwood]

I hear about baking and boiling driftwood. We have a 120 galon tank that we want to get a large piece for, to go almost all the way across it.. How would we boil or bake that? Or what could we do to make a large piece safe?