Dis-infecting Drift Wood???????

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soulFish

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Jan 14, 2007
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Tampa, FL
I have a 100 gallon tank thats been giving me issues. Lost a few fish in it and have no idea why. All water test have showed up nothing. So now I've gotten rid of the fish and am breaking it down and going to convert it to a Saltwater fish only tank.

I have a few really nice large pieces of drift wood in there that I want to transfer to my show tank. But I'm worried about transferring whatever was wrong with the old tank into my show tank. So I'm boiling the wood in a large pot outside now. I'm hoping that will kill ALL bacteria, parasites.

If there are any toxins that leached into the wood somehow (not even sure if this did happen or not?) will boiling it release it out of the wood much like tanis? I know I boiled wood before that was staining the water to stop it from doing that, it essentially made all the tanis leach out when boiled.

What do you guys think? Will this work?
 
Boiling is more than sufficient to destroy or inactivate any potential toxins or pathogens. Frankly, it's more than I would have done.
 
Another precaution is to bake the wood for awhile in your oven, thou please be sure and warn the mrs. about it first...
 
Def not dishwater LOL, maybe he's joking around. There was another thread about it too, and he got fungus on his piece. I advised soaking in hot salt water, or baking in the sun first and still would go that route. Some wood do have toxins, like pine will contain sap that can be poisonous. Where did you get your wood?
 
First bake, then boil. You want to get the wood completely dry so it doesn't rot. Bake anywhere between 375 and 425 degrees for 3-8 hours. I've done it even longer, but that should be good enough. I'd boil it for 8 hours once your done baking it. (It's okay that you've already started with boiling, just bake it and start over.) When it's done boiling scrub it down and rinse it off.

Removing loose bark, branches or dirt is also important. You may want to sand it a bit too to give it a nice, finished look. Don't sand it down too much though, follow all the curves and keep it natural-looking. (do this after baking)
 
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