yea i just collected some wood myself, hosed it off, soaked it for about 3 days. cleaned it a few times while soaking and today i added a peice to my tank, its still floating but hopefully it will sink soon. ill let you know how it works
well...i did use bleach, and i did rinse the hell outta it. no matter how much i rinsed it, it had a slight scent of bleach. i sun dried it and sat all the pieces under a fan overnight to try and totally dry it. since i've done probably 20, 10 gallon water changes and have been religious with the prime, and any traces of the scent are gone. my levels are right where they need to be (nitrate a little spikey) but for the most part it's good. like i said before...i scrubbed it with grip gloves (like the potatoe peeler), then power washed it at the local carwash, then soaked in bleach water(about 1 cup bleach for every 15 gallons water) then sun dried it, and used it. haven't had any fish introduced to it yet but i think i'm going to buy some feeders and see how long they last. that i guess will be the true test.
and made one very last change. also decided to try the mesh cover.
I really like how natural everything looks. As for bleach I know you can use it diluted to clean fish stuff, however due to the porous nature of wood it might retain a lot of the bleach and later expel it out. Just my 2 cents.