yea it's real driftwood,if the piece is small enough you can boil it on the stove 2-3 times,or if it's not you can soak it in the tub in some HOT water,but as you can see this piece is HUGE and it woulden't fit in any pot,and the tub woulden't really do any good so i just heaved it in,there was a good few little pieces of wood floating around for the first week or so but it's great now,and in case if did leach anything out i done 35% water changes daily for the first week and it's fine now