Driftwood? WTF!!

[gveng]

ok, after looking at some of the crazy prices people/stores ask for driftwood, i'm wondering can you just go outside, cut a nice size branch, dry it somehow, and then put it inside your tank?

or is there something i am missing?

P.S. and no, before anyone asks... i don't have any local rivers next to me to find driftwood from.

 

[TheRealAndyCook]

You'll probably actually wanna Soak the branch in "tank water" as the sugers in the tree sap are more dense then water so they should be replaced easily by the water.

 

[Allan01230]

You could be bringing a lot of toxins in your tank with that kind of wood.

 

[Zander_The_RBP]

No you can't because in that situation it's not driftwood at all. Drfitwood is wood that has been thoroughly weathered and all bark has been removed. Most saps will have been leahced out and tannins may or may not have been leached out.


You would have to soak it for 6 months at best to complete the decomposition process. Good driftwood often it weathered for years or decades.

 

[Dark Jester]

Yeah, you'll probably want to soak it for a good long while. I've heard that some sap can be toxic to fish as well, so might want to research the type of tree you're looking to cut for safety.

It will grow a lot of crud for a few weeks at least. Keep it submerged, change the water and scrub it every few days. Eventually it should stay submerged on it's own and the stuff growing on it will slow down a lot. Should be ready to go in a tank then.

 

[Dark Jester]

You could be bringing a lot of toxins in your tank with that kind of wood.

not true.

Many people collect their own dirftwood(myself included) it gives you access to extremely large pieces for free assuming you use a little common sense and don't pick up a peice that's obviously still rotting you'll be fine.

He's asking about cutting a fresh tree.. He'd be starting the rotting process from scratch. He said he doesn't have access to any actual driftwood.

 

[Zander_The_RBP]

He's asking about cutting a fresh tree.. He'd be starting the rotting process from scratch. He said he doesn't have access to any actual driftwood.

yeah i missed that hence why i edited my post after.


thanks for pointing it out though becuase i may have not caught on to my error.

 

[gveng]

lol, it's not like i'm going to be doing this tomorrow. it was just one of those random thoughts of the day kind of things.

 

[PostalPenguin]

You'd probably be OK with hardwoods like oak. Maybe heat the wood in an oven at ~350F or so to dry out the wood and/or burn off the volatiles.

However, pine sap is how they used to get turpentine so I'd stay far away from that.

 

[Racersk]

I thought about the same thing, but what we are using in the fish tanks has normally already been processed, by Ma nature or by man... De barking is one, and like Mopani wood it is dense, it doesn't float and there has been alot of time underwater in nature (the biggest filter of all), sand blasted and all the crud, minus some of the tannins, has been leached out of the wood, making it suitable to be in our little part of nature. Beneficial bacteria can only do so much.


I would like to see more postings on the wood that CAN be used (oak leave?), there have been some branches that people use in there tanks that are considered safe. Is there any good listings of such woods? I know the obvious of soaking for X amount of time, I'm cool with that, but I want to see more mangrove branch biotopes and how we can achieve this. I have rarely seen live products that replicate this, only those expensive plastic ornaments.

I know I have seen a member do just this...180G(IIRC) white to tan colored sand and there is a branch as the centerpiece...