should i boil bogwood/root

[jasoncambs]

here to pick a few brains

i picked this up yesterday , told it is banana root by the shopkeeper i got it from ,, does it need boiling , it looks pretty clean already ,, its dry and has not been in an aquarium yet ,,
will it float or sink ,, if it will float how do you sink it ,?

cheers jason

 

[BPags52]

I don't know anything about that type of wood.

But I've seen lots of people here say to boil any wood going into your tank for anywhere from 1-4 hours, and leave soaking in hot water (change once in awhile..) for about a week.

In theory, this will help get rid of the tannis that stains your water that yellow/brown tint. Also, should make it sink.

 

[swede]

what he said...... that will help to waterlog it. however if you let it dry out after that, i have heard that it will go back to floating.... worst comes to worst, tie it down with fishline to a rock, or drill some holes in the underside and stick some weights/stones in it. hope this helps

 

[jasoncambs]

cheers , i will run it a hot bath for a week then,, its an interesting piece , i will have to get some picks when its in ,,

 

[swede]

not a problem mate. I'm jealous.... where did you find it? Its rather large too

 

[jasoncambs]

in uk ,, a village caled walsoken ,, walsoken aquatics,, they had large bits of the regular dark bogwood too, they seem to be more geared towards decor and sculptures etc , and the large piece cost me 25pounds its near 4foot long

http://walsokenaquatics.homestead.com/index.html

 

[swede]

wow a steal?!?!?!? yeah its sad really that you go to a lfs and you gotta dig through all the pirate skulls, fake plants, and what not to find a piece of driftwood. It takes effort to build a natural looking tank nowadays.

 

[jasoncambs]

yeah , tell me about it ,,, well,, i boiled it for all of today ,, just tried it in the tank and it still floats

first big bit of wood i have owned for a aquarium so getting it to sink is all new for me ,,

i could tie it to some heavy rocks but if it comes undone the wood may surface with speed and cause a break if it hits glass ,, unsure on this method ,,

took it out again and just put it in a bucket of water now till i can think of a way to secure it to the bottom of the tank for good ,,

 

[swede]

you need to soak it in water for a long time to waterlog it. during this time, you may want to weigh it down in a bucket. once it becomes waterlogged enough, most likely it will sink. trty soaking it for a week and see if it stays under

 

[BigCountry]

Wow that's a really cool peice of wood. Should look nice. I am too lazy to boil wood (I do not have the setup to properally do it anyway), so I usually just drop it in and run heavy chem filtration on my Magnum 350 until all the tannis is out. hehe Some peices pump out more than others it seems.