Stocking

[Brittanirdh]

The soft wood/hard wood thing is all about sap in the wood. If you tried to use a soft wood like cedar, there'd be an unbelievable amount of sap in the wood--it's pink. The sap would never come out even if you boiled it--it's a mess. You probably wouldn't want to use Pine, either.

But "hard" woods like, Oak for example. You cut a tree down, it's moist on the inside and there's some kinda sap in it, but it's nothing like cedar. You let Oak dry out for a year, the sap comes out, and it won't leach all kinds of tree sap stuff in your tank. A cedar fence plank 3-4 years old will still smell like cedar if you crack it open. Not so with Oak.

I think if you have an obviously old and weathered piece of driftwood like in your pics, you're OK. to be sure, cut into it 1/8 or 1/4 inch, be sure it's not green or fresh down deeper. If it's dry that deep, you're good.

Nice driftwood by the way. I'd love to just find that while I'm out and about. It'd cost you hundreds if you bought similar pieces at an LFS or the Internet.

Thanks! Tons of it around here!
Now I'm going through more of what I've found tiring to decide what to use. My favorite is massive and heavy so I probably won't end up using it. My husband says its yard art.

 

[Brittanirdh]

Some of my other drift wood projects (non-aquatic).

 

[Brittanirdh]

Only reason I'd imagine some one saying don't use soft wood is because it's break down more easily. I honestly went out and grabbed what I liked, soaked in water/water-bleach solution, scrubbed and power washed. Most of the stuff was actually just too big to "cook" though...

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Very nice! Love your fish!

 

[ragin_cajun]

well, once you get past the hard/sosft wood thing, and you know it's not gonna leach sap into your tank......there's another huge issue.

Getting it to sink in your water..

 

[Brittanirdh]

well, once you get past the hard/sosft wood thing, and you know it's not gonna leach sap into your tank......there's another huge issue.

Getting it to sink in your water..

Yeah, when I started to talk about it to the husband, he was very anti putting found wood in new tank. He said no. So back to the drawing board on my hides set up.

 

[Buphy]

I soaked my 5 foot log in the tub and rotated it. With power washing and the water/bleach-water solution, it came out perfect.