Time To Sink

[Midwater]

Most of my driftwood I have had for years, close to twenty, and I cannot remember how long I had to submerge it for.

Two years ago, I got a bunch of good dense Asian hardwood cutoffs. I made a thread about it at the time. They did not float, and they did not sink, they just drifted up and down as the fish nudged them around. So I weighed them down with bags of stones. It took close to six months before I could remove the stones. I think it took so long because it was so dense.

Then four months ago, I got four nice long and interesting teak roots, with plenty of grooves and crevices. Teak is not so dense, so I had to wedge them in my tank. Even so they would come loose and float up every so often. One piece sank after a few weeks. But the other three pieces are still floating. They are definitely not as buoyant as at first. I would have expected them to have sunk by now.

I wedge them in with the one heavy piece. The fish seem to like them, the plecos suck on them, the pike cichlid and the catfish hide in the hollows. It certainly would be successful wood ... if it would sink. I am getting a bit tired of waiting.

It looks as if every type of wood, or every piece, has its own time to sink. TTS. Bits of driftwood should come with their own TTS rating.

What has your experience been with getting wood to sink? What is the longest, and the shortest time, and for what wood?

 

[jjohnwm]

TTS....I love it.

I'm always amazed when I read people talk about how fast this piece or that piece of wood sank on its own. My own experience has always been that even small pieces usually require at least several months, and I have had a number of larger, thicker pieces that required a year or two of continuous submergence to stay down without weights. This can usually be hastened by drilling holes into or all the way through the piece to effectively reduce its thickness and ease the entry of water; it's a bit like poking holes into a roast to insert garlic slivers into...

My wood is all self-collected, and almost all of it comes from lakeshores and river banks where it is bleached dry as a bone by the sun and wind...in other words, actual driftwood. So obviously this contributes to the lengthy waterlogging process.

I well remember a couple of instances where big chunks of wood took a couple years to finally sink; it was cause for great celebration when, during a regular tank cleaning, the rocks were gingerly removed and the dang thing didn't bob to the surface like a WWII submarine coming up for air. Happy days!

In recent years I have just weighted new pieces down with concrete blocks and kept them submerged in my outdoor pond. There's less anxiety involved when you aren't staring at the thing through a glass wall every day...waiting for it to give up the battle and to stay on the bottom.

Most importantly: when you finally...finally...get a stubborn piece to sink...don't let it dry out again!!!

 

[tlindsey]

I remember driftwood was also sold with slate screwed to the wood so it help it from floating. Back then most had gravel substrate which help weigh down the slate with wood attached.