Driftwood conditioning.

[sjogren1]

I found a beautiful piece of lake driftwood. I only had to cut a small portion of it off (aesthetics). It is very clean, but had a very small amount of algae. How do I cure/condition it for use in a fresh water, planted aquarium?

 

[dattack]

I have boiled my driftwood for 30-40 minutes then rechanging the water and reboiling it until it leaches all the tannins and other nasties.  Do this till water is relatively clear.  You can then let it soak it in a bucket for 24 hr. before you put it in the tank.
If the driftwood is too big to boil, you can put it in a 10% bleach solution for 24hr, then in freshwater for 24 hr, and then check pH of the water to see if it's too acidic or not.

 

[sjogren1]

Thanks. If the pH is a lot off 6.8 to 7.0, what then?

 

[dattack]

I think that pH will be fine.  If you have Discus or tetras, they would love it.

Oh BTW, some driftwood will float in your aquarium because it hasn't been sufficiently waterlogged yet.  That however could take months.  If you think it will float, let the wood dry and silicone it or screw it to a piece of slate so that you can put the slate under the gravel to hold.

 

[sjogren1]

OK. My Father-in-Law gave me a piece of slate. He even drilled it through and gave me solid brass screws (real, not brass coated). I have Tetras and other South Americans.