Collecting Wild Driftwood...

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
wow that looks amazing, love the many branches coming off the main arm. Yeah that looks good to me. I'd throw it in. I have picked 5 pieces all smaller though for my aquariums its alot harder here because most wood seems to rot fast. That piece looks like you bought it.

Haha thanks man. I assume it's from a freshly fallen tree because when you knock on it it sounds like a front door lol. I'm just nervous that since it is a fallen tree there could still be stuff in there I don't want in my water. Although, I've done pretty much all I can do without using chemicals. And so what if there's bugs in there... they'll die anyway
 
Well I have to say ur not using driftwood anymore, its just regular wood. Im sure it would work but drift wood is usually dark since its usually a hardwood, which will sink faster since its heavier.
 
I thought driftwood was any wood collected by water bodies, maybe the dark colour your thinking of is just what the wood looks like after its waterlogged
 
"drift·wood (dr
ibreve.gif
ft
prime.gif
w
oobreve.gif
d
lprime.gif
)n. Wood floating in or washed up by a body of water."




..so once you get it in your tank..i would classify that as a "body of water" it is driftwood.
 
All of the "driftwood" by me is black and nasty. No way I'm even going to try and clean it to get it in my tank.
 
I understand your worry. I've got plenty of driftwood that i've collected, I've never had anything bad come out of it. Some bugs sure but thats free fish food if you dry it out that should help. I still get more bugs from my plants then anything else., even if you get weird algae most of it will be beneficial. I've got some wicked green algae growing on the wood that grows upward towards the water level, it looks nice actually and hasn't spread. i even have a bit of fresh water sponge growing on one piece.
 
You mean that you've pulled out of water? Not a fallen tree? My assumption is that mines fresh and not that soft black nasty look. If there's any bugs the water will kill them, since i found my piece in the woods.
 
think the wood looks great. would love to see tht in tank! i would say tht if u scrubbed it n soaked it in hot water it should be straight... thts all ive done with mine. found it in a creek @ tht. hasnt grew anything or released critters and really hasnt realeased any tannins into my tank either...
 
think the wood looks great. would love to see tht in tank! i would say tht if u scrubbed it n soaked it in hot water it should be straight... thts all ive done with mine. found it in a creek @ tht. hasnt grew anything or released critters and really hasnt realeased any tannins into my tank either...

Yeah it hasn't done anything to my water yet. Might get a pic up tomorrow.
 
My piece of wood started to grow little black spots on it. Anybody else experience this? I took it out because I didn't want to risk it.
 
MonsterFishKeepers.com