drift wood???

[i_tend_to_trend]

was wondering a couple questions how do you guys hold your driftwood down... ive had some pretty sweet peices but when i barrie whem under 30 pounds of sand not so cool any more...

secondly are u useing real driftwood if so how are you leaching out all that stuff i cant remember the name of... i love the look of the driftwood but hate haveing brown water and all the stuff that comes along with it

 

[CrankBait]

couple of things you can do:
If you are using big driftwood, presoak all your driftwood...this helps waterlog the piece plus eventually it should sink. (Bathtubs and jacuzzi's are good for this.) If its small enough to fit in a pot, boil it. Boil it for a few hours. Dump the old water and add new water every hour. This sterilizes the piece, and removes a lot of the tannins that will leach out and stain your tank water. The piece soaks in more water when you boil it and will probably sink.
If the piece doesn't sink, you can screw another flat piece of wood, ceramic tile, etc to the bottom of the driftwood and then bury that under the sand and it will hold it down. You can weight it down also. hope this helps

 

[Allan01230]

I actually buy malaysian driftwood that is heavier than regular driftwood. it sinks right away. Also I buy pieces that are in my lfs's tanks already with the tannins all leached out already. Then he just takes a new piece off the shelf plops it in the tank for the next customer.

 

[Michiba54]

Carbon, water changes, an time will remove the brown, soaking it in water first helps too, the hotter the better.

To hold the wood down you can tie yarn (yarn should disintegrate by the time the wood is water log) around a rock or screw it to slate. If the slate is big enough you can put the wood at good angles that you wouldn't normally be able to have.

 

[warmouth]

was wondering a couple questions how do you guys hold your driftwood down... ive had some pretty sweet peices but when i barrie whem under 30 pounds of sand not so cool any more...

secondly are u useing real driftwood if so how are you leaching out all that stuff i cant remember the name of... i love the look of the driftwood but hate haveing brown water and all the stuff that comes along with it

I find driftwood at the lake that wont float (I test it). A friend of mine puts his driftwood from the lake in plastic storage containers with seasalt in it for 3 days, kills everything bad and if you use dechlorinated water to soak in later before you put in your tank wont harm your fish.