Safe driftwood

[Vincentii]

shouldnt use sandstone. f*cks up the ph.
go to your nearest beach (say fife) and get free rocks. thats where most of the fish shops in the u.k get theres from. just make sure they arent pourous. i got loads for my cousins tank last summer when we went to the beach. huge rocks. took us 5 trips up and down the shore and loading them things into the boot.
its amazing what you can find for free when you look for them.

 

[Sparkyreed123]

Its hard though, you hear so much stuff online. Don't use that and not this, cool i'll give that a shot. I'm gonna get rid of most of plants in the tank, cos i'm gonna light with LED spots. So really i just want massive bits of wood, say 4ft and then just litter the bottom with boulders and build slate hiding holes etc.

 

[Vincentii]

Its hard though, you hear so much stuff online. Don't use that and not this, cool i'll give that a shot. I'm gonna get rid of most of plants in the tank, cos i'm gonna light with LED spots. So really i just want massive bits of wood, say 4ft and then just litter the bottom with boulders and build slate hiding holes etc.

do abit of research on the net. there was an article in 'pfk' u.k magazine years ago. and some oscar fanatic build massive tanks into his walls and he went into the local woods and found oak branches and just threw them into the tank. also lowered the p.h (so check your fish p.h requirments) the oscars bred like mad.

it also stated that the following trees were totally safe ak, beach, elm branches and beach.

trees to avoid : pine and sweet chestnut - they have too much tannin and make your water too acidic.

good luck with new project.

 

[Sparkyreed123]

Cheers mate, i'll look out for that stuff. Been on night shifts but gonna post some pics today, look out for them.

 

[boldtogether]

The PH in my tank is and ALWAYS is 7.8. It never changes. Even after the addition of the wood. The sandstone does break down after awhile though.

 

[Vincentii]

ive got a collection of nice real bogwood peices in storage that ive collected thru-out the last 10 years.ranging from 8'' to 22''.if your ever down in london could sell you a peice.
use to keep them in my 6x2x2 community tanks. but put them away ever since i start keeping larger fish.
some fishshops charge silly money for rubbish excuses for wood and thats one of my fishkeeping gripes.