preparing driftwood
- Thread starter ducksarefun
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Finding wood and throwing it in is fine, just be sure its the right kind of wood and you treat it right. The tannis in the wood causes the water to turn brown/yellow and it also drops your pH pretty dramatically in large quantities. To prevent this with wood you find, give it a good scrub down with a course brush and running water. Then throw it in a bucket or big plastic garbage can to soak it until it sinks. It may also be a good idea to boil the wood for a half hour to get rid of any organisms in it, especially if you found it in a body of water. The process can take a few days to a few months depending on how dry your wood is, be patient.
Ducksarefun: here's an extensive quote from "Colesea - Superfish"
Stay away from softwoods (aka pines), and stick with hardwoods (Maple, sycamore, apple, cherry, poplar, etc). Don't do willow or witchhazel. Willow and witchhazel can be posion. Make sure you select dry wood, not green (aka fresh, still alive wood) or totally rotten apart wood.
It is perfectly okay to pull driftwood from the ocean, I do all the time, being as how I don't live near any freshwater lakes, but have 24 hour access to some of the best beaches. Any salt residue in the wood will be removed during the curing process.
Whether from the ocean or from the lakes, the best way to cure driftwood is to first take off all the bark. Usually wood found on the beach is already removed of bark, which is why I like it so much. You can remove the bark by peeling it off or with a good chisle. After getting all the bark removed, scrub the wood under some running water with a good, stiff brush. This can be done in a bathtub or under the hose outside. Scrubbing the wood will get off dirt and other organic particles.
Next, depending upon the size of the wood you find, you can soak it in a 5 gallon bucket (I like ten gallon plastic garbage pails because I can get a lot more bigger pieces into them<G> ) of a 10% bleach solution. That's one part bleach for nine parts water. Regular water is fine, and it does not have to be hot. Mix the bleach solution completely, and soak your wood for 24 hrs. This will ensure that anything living on the wood, parasites or fungus, is completely dead.
After your soak in bleach, you are going to rinse and scrub your wood again, and do so vigorously. Then you will wash out your bucket and use it to soak your wood again. This time you will add libral amounts of tap water conditioner (aka water dechlorinator) to your water, and soak your wood for a week, changing the water daily. After this phase is when I usually stick the wood in my tanks.
You may notice that the water you pour out of your buckets has been turned yellow or tea colored. This is because of chemicals known as tannins that are in all plants (it is what gives tea its color). These tannins will also turn the water in your tank yellow. Some people prefer to soak their wood with daily water changes until all the yellow color is gone, and this may take up to four weeks depending upon the thickness and size of your wood piece. Some people like the tannin color in their tanks, and use the wood anyway. Carbon in the filters will help speed up tannin removal from your tank, and the carbon should be changed daily during this process for maximum effeciency. Tannins in low concentrations will not hurt your fish, but high levels of tannins can cause your tank to turn acidic, so it is recommended that you monitor your water chemistry carefully and do water changes as necessary to keep your pH stable when adding tanic wood to your tank.
Some people also prefer to bake their wood, drying it out completely either in the sun or in the oven. I do not know what temperature settings you would use to dry wood in your oven and not have spotanious combustion. Of course drying wood in the sun depends upon the humidity of your region.
Also, other people will recommend siliconing the wood to slate or other rocks to weigh it down so it sinks. If using silicon, you must wait a week before placing the piece in your tank so that the silicon dries completely. Other people will simply let the wood soak up water during the rinsing part, or let it sit in a seperate bucket until it no longer floats before placing it in their tank. Never pile anything on top of a still floating piece of wood. The wood may come dislodged, knocking over things that could damage your tank or fish.
Hope this covers all the bases for you.
~~Colesea
Stay away from softwoods (aka pines), and stick with hardwoods (Maple, sycamore, apple, cherry, poplar, etc). Don't do willow or witchhazel. Willow and witchhazel can be posion. Make sure you select dry wood, not green (aka fresh, still alive wood) or totally rotten apart wood.
It is perfectly okay to pull driftwood from the ocean, I do all the time, being as how I don't live near any freshwater lakes, but have 24 hour access to some of the best beaches. Any salt residue in the wood will be removed during the curing process.
Whether from the ocean or from the lakes, the best way to cure driftwood is to first take off all the bark. Usually wood found on the beach is already removed of bark, which is why I like it so much. You can remove the bark by peeling it off or with a good chisle. After getting all the bark removed, scrub the wood under some running water with a good, stiff brush. This can be done in a bathtub or under the hose outside. Scrubbing the wood will get off dirt and other organic particles.
Next, depending upon the size of the wood you find, you can soak it in a 5 gallon bucket (I like ten gallon plastic garbage pails because I can get a lot more bigger pieces into them<G> ) of a 10% bleach solution. That's one part bleach for nine parts water. Regular water is fine, and it does not have to be hot. Mix the bleach solution completely, and soak your wood for 24 hrs. This will ensure that anything living on the wood, parasites or fungus, is completely dead.
After your soak in bleach, you are going to rinse and scrub your wood again, and do so vigorously. Then you will wash out your bucket and use it to soak your wood again. This time you will add libral amounts of tap water conditioner (aka water dechlorinator) to your water, and soak your wood for a week, changing the water daily. After this phase is when I usually stick the wood in my tanks.
You may notice that the water you pour out of your buckets has been turned yellow or tea colored. This is because of chemicals known as tannins that are in all plants (it is what gives tea its color). These tannins will also turn the water in your tank yellow. Some people prefer to soak their wood with daily water changes until all the yellow color is gone, and this may take up to four weeks depending upon the thickness and size of your wood piece. Some people like the tannin color in their tanks, and use the wood anyway. Carbon in the filters will help speed up tannin removal from your tank, and the carbon should be changed daily during this process for maximum effeciency. Tannins in low concentrations will not hurt your fish, but high levels of tannins can cause your tank to turn acidic, so it is recommended that you monitor your water chemistry carefully and do water changes as necessary to keep your pH stable when adding tanic wood to your tank.
Some people also prefer to bake their wood, drying it out completely either in the sun or in the oven. I do not know what temperature settings you would use to dry wood in your oven and not have spotanious combustion. Of course drying wood in the sun depends upon the humidity of your region.
Also, other people will recommend siliconing the wood to slate or other rocks to weigh it down so it sinks. If using silicon, you must wait a week before placing the piece in your tank so that the silicon dries completely. Other people will simply let the wood soak up water during the rinsing part, or let it sit in a seperate bucket until it no longer floats before placing it in their tank. Never pile anything on top of a still floating piece of wood. The wood may come dislodged, knocking over things that could damage your tank or fish.
Hope this covers all the bases for you.
~~Colesea
It's not easy to find really, but you can sometimes get lucky. I have the best luck waaaay out on backroads deep in the national forest, they have huge cement bridges on the creeks and when it rains the mountains cause a lot of flooding which brings down all kinds of downed trees/branches, etc. We just stop at every bridge and dig around where the flood washed up debris. I mostly find lots of straight sticks that have been washed up and dried out in the sun, but occassionally I get lucky!
Gotta watch out for those water moccasins though
Gotta watch out for those water moccasins though
Oh Somonas, did ya miss me? I missed ya too. Been busy planning a vacation, a wonderful week long cruise to the West Carriabean. Planning has been more work than work-work, and I had to take on extra hours at work-work to pay for the whole thing, but I know this vacation will make it worth it. Diving, more diving, we're going to Stingray City in Cozamel (not that I support feeding wild fish for the sake of tourism, but I have to go to say I've been there, I can't resist, the ability to snorkle with "friendly" eagle rays is just way way too tempting to pass up). We're going on a rainforest hike in Belieze, and diving The Wall of the Grand Caymans, and a sunset party cruise in Costa Maya....*sigh*
One week to go and I've got so much fishy stuff to take care of! My dad is gonna fishy-sit, and because of the recent heat waves, things are gonna be a bit more difficult than simply feeding them every other day.
~~Colesea
One week to go and I've got so much fishy stuff to take care of! My dad is gonna fishy-sit, and because of the recent heat waves, things are gonna be a bit more difficult than simply feeding them every other day.
~~Colesea
I'm in southwest AR, near the OK border. The bad part is I've seen many mocassins IN the wood piled up near the bridges hehe But they generally go away if you poke around. If they don't want to give up the pile of wood then I just go on, not about to argue with one for long
I'm only afraid of 3 kinds of snakes anyway. Live snakes, dead snakes and sticks that look like snakes
I'm only afraid of 3 kinds of snakes anyway. Live snakes, dead snakes and sticks that look like snakes
Oh colesea diving down there is going to be so great. Wall of the grand caymans *dreaming* I was thinking of going to florida for a couple weeks this summer (key west) to dive, but then I figured, why leave somewhere that is hot and humid, to go somewhere that is hotter and humider? oh well... make sure you take lots of underwater pics.
oh well... make sure you take lots of underwater pics.