Successful Hunt! Except for the mud!

[AndyL]

Ever seen a 26yr old, and a 6 year old stuck in the mud both lacking shoes? Very amusing! I'm sure the people watching us were wishing they had video cameras

Riverbank hunting trip was VERY successful, found more rocks and wood than I'd need for 20 tanks! Currently I'm deciding what pieces I'm keeping, and what are going back to the river.

Found LOTS of wood, wood coming out the yang actually, everywhere I looked, I found cool pieces... Anyway, we brought back what we could carry, I'm currently trying to prep the best of the best peices (the ones that had neat nooks and crannies worn away by the river/ice/whatever)

Would love to hear your ideas for how I'm treating the wood, they all got soaked for 4 hours in a 50% bleach solution (also had 12tbsp of 'algae destroyer' main ingredient in that is Simazine 0.60%. From what I've read its some nasty s__t! At those concentrations (12tbsp in about 2 gallons) it should kill off anything living in the wood. Now some peices (those that fit) are being boiled... You should see the color of the water the woods boiling in, changing it every 20 minutes and it still comes out dark brown!

The rocks I'm not sure what to do with... I was advised to scrape, bleach, boil then bake the rocks. But that assumes I got the right kinds of rocks to begin with. The rocks I found that I liked, I think are sedimentary rocks... Not sure if I even can use those in the tank. They were breaking off huge chunks of the rivershore, much like shale...

Thoughts suggestions? Pics will follow when the cooler wood gets 'off the pot'  :

 

[v3x10e8]

find you own driftwood and gravel, yeah!!  *thumbsupsmiley*
much nicer looking than when you go LFS and pay big bucks.
if you use bleech, butter make sure they are soak in water/boiled long enough.  
as for the stone, there is a article here called stone definition that would help.
good luck!!

 

[colesea]

If you are soaking wood with bleach, better make sure to soak it extra long in some sodium thiosulfate (a strong dechlorinator), or soak in some commerical aquarium dechlorinator.  Bleach can get absorbed into wood, then leach back into your tank water. Not fun.

As for the rocks, I simply boil then use, scrubbing off any cruddy stuff with a stiff brush. Shale, slate, and sedimentary stone should be fine, as well as quartz.  The stones to stay away from would be limestones (calcium carbonate rocks) and granits. You can test for calium carbonate by pouring a bit of vinegar on the rock. If it bubbles it is calcium carbonate. If not, you just washed the stone<G>.  Calcium carbonate limestone is only safe for hard-water species such as African Rift Ciclids or marine fish.
~~Colesea

 

[AndyL]

6 hours of boiling for 3 lil pieces enough? I'm planning to soak them for a few more days (never mind the fact that they aren't sinking)

I've got some BIG chunks I'm not sure what to do with, to big to soak (except maybe in the bathtub), boilings totally out of the question; but one of them would look REALLY nice in the 20g

I couldn't resist, I pulled my favorite chunk out:

Don't know which tank this is going into yet...

Andy

 

[Pooky125]

Boiling or baking rocks is a bad idea! Some rocks, if put under extreme heat, will explode from the gases trapped inside the rocks... Just soack and scrub for those...

 

[AndyL]

Almost have everything clean now! One chunk of wood now sits on the bottom of the rubbermaid

Here's the best of the collection, what I'm keeping (there are more rocks but they're getting cleaned!

This is a chunk of driftwood that I really like... Sitting in the corner of the 20 would be its ideal location (I think)

This piece I haven't decided on yet, I _REALLY_ like it, just not sure where to use it! I could see it as a beautiful centerpiece for the 20 (it does fit, just barely) Lots of nooks and crannies for fish to hide in...

The rocks I'm still unsure of, they passed the vinegar test, but I'm sure they are sedimentary rocks, they've been clouding the water as I clean them pretty nastily. But the rocks are full of some really cool features that don't appear in digital pics so well, you can see snails, shrimp, all kinds of neat creature fossilized in them... I'm currently boiling a few of them to see how things go, hopefully the cloudy water symptoms will go away.

Question has arrisen with the rocks, I've tried gluing some together with silicone, but they don't seem to stick together very well... Could I use epoxy to glue them together?

Andy

 

[colesea]

Pooky  ??? What type of temps does your stove reach? I've never had a problem with boiling rocks.  Maybe it depends upon the type of rock and the exact pressures and fracture planes involved, but I've boiled stones the same way I make pasta and can't say I've ever had a problem with it. I've even baked rocks in the heart of campfires before and have never seen one of them explode, although I've never baked them in an oven. *shrug*

If you're seriously worried about boiling water exploding rocks, maybe boil the water in a tea kettle first, then pour that water over the rocks while they're in a five-gallon bucket outside. Of course you'll have to repeat that process as the water cools, but it's the same effect.

I can't vouch for rocks and microwaves though.  
~~Colesea

 

[Neon]

Well in theory microwaving the rocks would kill any bacteria in the rocks and wood perfectly. A microwave causes the water molicules to vibrate faster as you all know and that as we all know will cause the water molicules to expand killing any and all bacteria in the rocks and wood.

However thats just a theory.

Rocks exploding.
Hmm it would have to be extreamly soft rock. any normal hard stone should be fine in the oven. how ever bring the temp up slowly. place the rock in and then turn on the oven to about 200c

 

[Aquaman]

That first picture is one hell of a nice-looking piece of driftwood.   *thumbsupsmiley*  

My personal experience with attempting to cure driftwood has not been a happy one - I've tried leaving it in the swimming pool, bleaching it, leaving it in buckets of boiling water with salt, leaving it in the sun, and after three months, the wood was still leaching tannin.  I eventually gave up, but I guess it was just the quality of the wood  :

Please keep us posted with your success story!

 

[nonamethefish]

T okeep tannin from leaching out, you could have selaed the driftwood in several layers of epoxy.(or some other thing like that, I forgot its name)

 

[AndyL]

[quote author=Aquaman link=board=freshwatergeneral&num=1029638403&start=0#8 date=08/19/02 at 02:43:30]
That first picture is one hell of a nice-looking piece of driftwood.   *thumbsupsmiley*  

[/quote]

Yeah, I'm really excited about that one, I'm hoping its been in the water long enough most of the tannins should be gone... Its obviously been underwater for a while (just by the funky wear) But I'm told tannin leeching is normal; even with the storebought stuff; and can last for years...

Still floats at the moment tho... Darnit! Still soaking in a bucket of water (being held down by a little 1gal tank filled with gravel)

I've been pondering painting some of my finds (specifically the rocks, as they wont glue together; sticks a bit, then just peels off a chunk of rock) but I'm not sure what paints would be fish safe... The wood I need clean so my pleco has something to munch on...

Andy

 

[fishboy]

[quote author=AndyL link=board=freshwatergeneral&num=1029638403&start=0#3 date=08/17/02 at 20:34:33]
6 hours of boiling for 3 lil pieces enough? I'm planning to soak them for a few more days (never mind the fact that they aren't sinking)

I've got some BIG chunks I'm not sure what to do with, to big to soak (except maybe in the bathtub), boilings totally out of the question; but one of them would look REALLY nice in the 20g

I couldn't resist, I pulled my favorite chunk out:

Don't know which tank this is going into yet...

Andy

[/quote]

Excellent piece of wood  *celebratesmiley* 8) *thumbsupsmiley*