drift wood question

[jcm412]

When you buy driftwood from a LFS that is suppose to be for the aquarium, do you still have to soak and leech it?

 

[MRS SATAN]

id do it any way just to be safe bt im nt an expert on it

 

[trojan09]

what i do to be extra careful is to soak it in boiling water for 10-15 min.

 

[kzimmerman]

Yes. The store bought driftwood is dried out, needs to be wetted again. I would soak it for two weeks, with a little bleach to help the leaching process, then boil it to remove the bleach. It will still leach tannins, but activated carbon will help that. I had a piece once that leached tannins for three years, I finally got rid of it. It was collected by me in a cypress swamp, so be carefull what you get. It didn't hurt the fish, just made the water brown.