need help, which wood ???

by **jonossi** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 6:54 pm

hi everybody im pretty nrw to all this,its been a while, was wondering if anybody knows if you can add wood form the beach to a tropical tank if its cleaned well or is it a no no??? please help,its because i found a awesome bit of wood that would really look well in my new tank, as it is pretty plain as you will see, pic is in the process

by **Tmercier834747** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 7:11 pm

As far if you're meaning it comes from an ocean beach and you wish to put it in a FW tank? I'm not sure of the results or if boiling would be able to release everything or not, but I can guarantee its probably safer to go with wood that spent its time in FW if thats its final destination.

Here's a very good short article on driftwood preparation. I only thought it was a bit vague when it came to specifics on selection. Just be sure I guess that the piece of wood you're using isn't going to ''rot'' in a short period of time. Anything put in your tank should last for years and years undless its exposed to a very hungry Pleco.

Edit: Ideally getting a piece that's already waterlogged will cut a great deal of time out of preparation...2 weeks is a long time to wait when you're excited about aquascaping. :)

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=857

by **jonossi** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 9:00 pm

thanks so much for your advice my friend, will read over the link, it seems good, mind you i would need a bath or pool to put this wood in, to release any nastys, its nearly 6' ha ha, mybe ill try to buy some, its just near imposible to find a big bit of treated driftwood were i am, and costs a lot of money, probably for a bit the size i want, $200

by **Serial324556** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 9:12 pm

Yeah it will probably be a hassle to clean and kill anything living on a piece of 6 foot driftwood. I have no experience with cleaning or curing driftwood but I've read that it can be a couple weeks process. It seems like it would be a hassle to boil a piece thats 6 feet too. I bought a couple of nice pieces of Malaysian Driftwood from my lfs a couple months ago. The big one is probably 16 inches in length and probably 10 inches wide cost me about $15. The other piece that is smaller about a foot in length cost me around $10-12.

The reddish color looks wonders in my tank though. Good luck hope we hear of your results!

by **jonossi** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 9:25 pm

thanks guys, its a pity, i supose if it was as easy to clean as i thought people wouldnt need to pay big$ for FW wood ha ha, ill maybe save my pennys and buy a good peice,the rocks ive used are from the beach and are fine but i guess there easy to boil, and dont soak up so much, hope my pictures arrive on this site soon, they have been posted, if you get a minute have a look and maybe give me some ideas as to what to put in my plain tank ha ha, my fish are real happy just think they need a bit more to roam in and hide or explore

by **Tmercier834747** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 3:55 pm

Holy @$^&#! 6 feet? Heh, good luck boiling a poolful of water lol
I acutally just had a thought....perhaps you can saw it into 1.5'-2' sections and then use some sort of metal, hammer-in staple/silicone to re-attach them. Well-placed plants could hide the staples. From what I understand rusting metal in water doesn't really do a lot of harm either, someone please correct me if I'm wrong. If you REAALLLYY want this piece of wood that's really the best way that I can think of for you to boil it unless you know someone with a 300 gallon vat or something...
Or I guess you could just resort to waiting a lot more time.

by **Peterkarig3210** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 5:13 pm

I wonder if you couldn't do a diluted scrubbing with bleach, then hose it off for a while, let it dry and hose it again, repeat a few times till there's no bleach smell, then put into tank with a good dose of dechlorinator and leave for a while before adding fish?

by **spongebob4460** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 11:22 pm

rust in water doesnt sound harmless to me but ive been wrong many a time

by **jonossi** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 7:53 pm

i just scrapped the idea, and bought 5 bits of fresh water treated wood, looks well got it pretty cheap, thanks everybody for there opinion, ive updated my pics as my tank progresses, it takes a lot of cash to fill a 600 litre tank ha ha

by **Peterkarig3210** » Sat Apr 05, 2008 10:12 pm

Right on. What is that in gallons, about 175?

need help, which wood ???

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