wood preservation.

[Gill Blue]

here's my wood, isn't it awesome?


it's so great, and such an integral part of the new tank design, I want to prevent rot for as long as possible.

I don't know what type of wood the larger piece is, but it's heavy enough I'm sure it's a hardwood and will stay submerged on it's own, but it will be siliconed to the top of the cypress knuckles, which in turn will be siliconed to the bottom of the tank.

I have a cypress knot in my 55G that's been there for around 8 years and it's gotten quite soft.

my plan is to "paint" the wood with silicone. no water exposure, no decomposition. it'll stay nice and dry within it's silicone wetsuit.

anyone try this? seems like a great non-toxic way to seal it up.

 

[joe jaskot]

How do you paint with silicone? Once it starts to cure touching the silicone will make a mess.

 

[HarleyK]

Howdy,

I truly doubt you'll ever be able to completely seal out water ... besides, plecos and snails will graze on silicone until they're thru to the wood. My reco would be to enjoy it as long as it lasts, and look forward to a change in looks when it's time to replace.

If you go thru with preservation, then make sure to post here and share your results, though. One way or the other

HarleyK

 

[vr6fan]

Weird the bottom ones look like some sort of vegetable root not wood....bro I wouldn't worry about preserving driftwood...it held up for a very long time in nature and will hold up just fine in your tank for many years...messing with silicone is just going to make a mess and won't work anyway

 

[Dixon81]

I'm pretty sure wood doesn't rot (or takes an incredibly long time) when it is completely submerged and always stays wet. What rots wood is the constant wet/dry that you would get as a log lays in the woods. If wood stays completely dry it's the same way. Think of the wood that River loggers find on the
Bottom of old logging rivers. The wood has been submerged for over 100 yrs. They pull the wood out and it's fully useable.

I could be completely wrong also.


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[joe jaskot]

I'm pretty sure wood doesn't rot (or takes an incredibly long time) when it is completely submerged and always stays wet. What rots wood is the constant wet/dry that you would get as a log lays in the woods. If wood stays completely dry it's the same way. Think of the wood that River loggers find on the
Bottom of old logging rivers. The wood has been submerged for over 100 yrs. They pull the wood out and it's fully useable.

I could be completely wrong also.


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You are wrong. Wood does decompose underwater, especially if it is a softwood. Hardwoods take a lot longer to decompose.

 

[coonass]

Silicone does not bond well to porous surfaces and will easily come off.

If you really want to do this, saturating the wood with epoxy resin would be a much better alternative. Stay away from polyester resin like Bondo brand from Walmart. West System is an example of an epoxy resin. If you can't get marine fiberglassing supplies, the other option would be to get the two-part syringes of clear epoxy "glue" such as Loc-Tite brand or similar. You can thin the epoxy with 90% alcohol to make it brushable. I have personally done this when constructing model boats. The epoxy should be non-toxic when fully cured.

Note that your wood will be forever buoyant after doing this.

 

[convict360]

Not to rain on your parade but it looks like a fairly common shaped bit of wood, it would probably last you years and years and, if it did rot down the line; you could probably find something very similar without too much difficulty.

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[Dixon81]

You are wrong. Wood does decompose underwater, especially if it is a softwood. Hardwoods take a lot longer to decompose.

See like i said i could be completely wrong.

Either way i wouldn't worry about preserving a piece of drift wood. Chances are the piece will be around a lot longer than your interested in the hobby

 

[Gill Blue]

harley, if we weren't able to seal out the water, this would be a very sad hobby. a bunch of dying fish flopping on the bottom of empty tanks. while I'd love to look forward to a re-design, I've got some serious back problems and finding/getting wood is either difficult or too expensive. I need my tanks to be as low maintenance as possible for as long as possible.

vr6fan and Dixon81, while some woods will last, the cypress knuckles will rot rather quickly. as I said in the original post, the one I've had submerged for 8 years is soft. it's a little firmer than soggy cardboard, but not much. I could tear off about 1.5" into the wood using just my fingernails. I've got other pieces that I thought were hardwoods but softened faster that the cypress has. I expect the larger piece would last fairly well untreated, but I thought that about the other piece too. with this being a tropical tank, the warm water will speed the process.

Silicone does not bond well to porous surfaces and will easily come off.

If you really want to do this, saturating the wood with epoxy resin would be a much better alternative. Stay away from polyester resin like Bondo brand from Walmart. West System is an example of an epoxy resin. If you can't get marine fiberglassing supplies, the other option would be to get the two-part syringes of clear epoxy "glue" such as Loc-Tite brand or similar. You can thin the epoxy with 90% alcohol to make it brushable. I have personally done this when constructing model boats. The epoxy should be non-toxic when fully cured.

Note that your wood will be forever buoyant after doing this.

a much better idea than the silicone. I was looking at flowable silicone, but that's supposed to be quite soft.
looks like some of the epoxies adhere well to silicone, which will help securing the cypress to the bottom of the tank, too.

I found a good post on epoxies from the deeb.

convict360, this hunk of wood has a 6" long 4" diameter hole through it. plus it's 45" long, both of which makes it unusual in my experience, and more difficult to replace.