I am turning my planted tank into a Paludraium tank that is 3/4th of the way full, with drift wood going out of the tank to make it look like tree roots coming down into it. I am going to also have some air plants that have their roots going in.
Well, the problem I have run into is the price of driftwood! $20+ for a medium size piece! My sister lives on an island outside Seattle and she is going to pick some up off the beach and mail it to me. What a price difference! $8 to mail it or spend $100 for the pieces I want.
My question is, she said they are pretty salt saturated due to being in the ocean there in Seattle. Will boiling them real well remove it? According to her they are smooth just like the kind you get at a lfs, so I really want this wood. How would you all remove the salt to make it safe for a freshwater planted tank?
Drift Wood Preparation to Remove Salt??
4 posts
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Tmercier834747 - Posts: 887
- Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:33 pm
I'm not sure what effect it would have on larger pieces..but I boiled a very small piece I got from the atlantic twice - for a couple hours each time, emptying the water from the pot after the first boil. After it cooled I added it to my 30gal tank with my german blues and have seen no ill effects... but why not try to find some lake driftwood in CO?
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dizzcat - Posts: 648
- Joined: Tue Jun 24, 2008 2:30 am
Can't use wood from here. All we have is basically pine trees and aspen. Both are no good for in an aquarium. The only other wood I found was in someones yard and it was just a stick. I can use that, but I don't think people would appreciate me cutting limbs off their trees LOL When you are at a lake here the wood in the lake is always pine trees.
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zambize - Posts: 401
- Joined: Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:14 pm
The only treatment I know of for driftwood is boiling it, but I've always heard to never use ocean driftwood in freshwater tanks... Check Ebay for some large lots of Malaysian driftwood fairly inexpensively.
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