Drift wood question

[Train]

I found a cool peace of drift wood at the local creek can I put it in my aquarium or is that a bad idea?

 

[Train]

I found a cool peace of drift wood at the local creek can I put it in my aquarium or is that a bad idea?

 

[Yuki Rihwa]

Spoil it in hot water for 30 minutes before put it in your tank.

 

[Train]

I don't have a pot big enough to boil it is there any other ways to prep the wood

 

[souzie]

I don't have a pot big enough to boil it is there any other ways to prep the wood

How big is it and how big is your pot?

Maybe you could boil one side, flip it over and boil the other side.

 

[pops]

I put wood from the river in my tanks all the time, power wash it off and away you go, I should ask is a tropical tank and woods from a north american river? if so you are fine,

 

[pops]

if you are real worried about it and its large, like mine. 3ft to 5 ft. leave in the sun to bake a few days if worried about it.

 

[pops]

but as said I just power wash and throw in, any bugs get eaten and pathogens not the same as tropical waters. you may get a fungus for awhile but will not hurt the fish.

 

[pops]

oh and nice piece of wood, pleco love polishing that up for you.

 

[neutrino]

All driftwood in my tanks anymore is stuff I collect myself. There's more than one approach, depending how thorough you want to be, what suits you, the environment the piece came from, etc. (by environment I mean, such as underwater, sitting on the ground, dry and sun bleached, etc.) Some treatments are: heavy salt water solution, bleach solution, slow heat in an oven at 150 or similar, really hot water baths in a rubbermaid type tub, etc. If you bleach it you want to let it air out until bleach smell is gone, if you salt it, you'd want to do a few rinse cycles in a tub.

Personally, I usually power wash externally to get any obvious dirt, mold, etc. off-- unless it's a clean looking piece already-- then I either boil if I can fit into a pan (I've done the boil one side then the other method) or do hot water baths in a bucket or plastic tub. The other factor is how much tannin the piece will leach out, how much it will discolor your water. Boiling releases tannins faster than anything else ime, otherwise (if the piece is too big) repeated soaks in a tub until tannin left in the water is acceptable to me for whatever tank it's going in.