Now... I live like 10 mins away from Browns Bay Beach and the other beaches around the north shore of Auckland... If I were to pop down and grab a piece of wood off the beach, how do I know if it's driftwood? If I were to just spray it down would it be alright to go straight into the tank or do I need to quarantine it and do heaps of other stuff to it?

Scrub it,

rinse it,

soak it for a day and do some water changes in that bin,

this is to see if there is anything in the wood that might seep out of a hole,

then weigh it down in your tank.

http://www.fnzas.org.nz/index.php?PG=driftwood

WIth mine I poured boiling water over it every half hour for a couple hours and then soaked it for about a day and then let it dry in the sun and then soaked it for a further 3 days and changed the water with boiling water again daily. No Problems at all.

I was thourough though just in case, Gave it a good scrub to. The soaking also helps remove any tannins that are left in it and stops your tank water going brown.

I think It needs to be soaked to stop it from floating?

http://www.fnzas.org.nz/index.php?PG=driftwood

Yeah I've read that piece already, so basically any wood found on the beach is driftwood then... hopefully will be able to find some nice small pieces there... otherwise it's gonna be hard to fit it into my tank... T.T

Now... I live like 10 mins away from Browns Bay Beach and the other beaches around the north shore of Auckland... If I were to pop down and grab a piece of wood off the beach, how do I know if it's driftwood?

The criteria are very extensive and detailed all the following must be true.

A: Is it wood?

B: Does it look like it was drifting in the water at some point?

If I were to just spray it down would it be alright to go straight into the tank or do I need to quarantine it and do heaps of other stuff to it?

Yup, just give it a wash to get any garbage off and throw it in the tank. It'll float for a while, so weigh it down or just let it float around until it sinks.

darn what a long list... i knew that there was much more than getting wood off the beach... reckon there's a shorter way?? lol