Using local driftwood in a tank

[fish_tank0311]

I went down to my pet shop today and bought another 20 liter tank for a fighter fish and i am going to use some local driftwood (me being in the country i have access to heaps of it) i went out looking with my dad and found lots of pieces of hard wood which he said should work. Now i need help to 'cure' it etc. I currently have it in a portable grill thingy boiling in water. Firstly what are your comments on this idea. secondly how long do i boil it for? thirdly what do i do after it boils? Another thing is, its actually floating. it is very very solid wood which feels heavy i dont know why its floating but how can i stop that and make it sink?

Thanks

[Fruju]

Weight it down underwater, the saturation of the wood occurs faster. Boiling kills the bacteria, should be ok in your tank, be aware though that it will leach tannins (not a bad thing), and the water may turn yellowish.

[fish_tank0311]

Thanks but wut do u mean weight it down? Do you mean weigh it down? and what do i weigh it down with? And what do you mean by saturation???

[anthony law]

i dont boil my driftwood i just let it soak for a week or two in a drum.

then hose off. and put into a tank if this still floating i weigth it down with

rocks. or if you are clever you cut a peace of prespex and use a screw it to

the wood and use your gravel on to the prespex to hold it down..

[fish_tank0311]

I was kind of interested in setting the tank up today but u say keep it in a drum for a week. by prespex im guessing you mean pERspex. Im not quite sure what you mean by this either.

[anthony law]

but u say keep it in a drum for a week.

to be on the safe side especially if its on a farm...but if it off the beach not so much a concern...

[anthony law]

. by prespex im guessing you mean pERspex. Im not quite sure what you mean by this either.

with the perspex you put your wood into the tank setup where you like it mark the points that thouch the bottom

of the tank take out .cut a square pieaces of perspex mark the center drill a hole. screw it to the bottom of the wood.so

its like a foot. fit back into tank and cover in the gravel. it will hold it in place and hold it down as well

[ally07]

And what do you mean by saturation???

Even though the wood is hard and heavy, it still needs time to become "waterlogged". That's why if you compare the driftwood you find in your LFS, it will look different from the piece of wood you're boiling (I presume). Once your wood has successfully waterlogged, it will sink like a rock and it will also look different from its current condition. 'Saturation' is the technical term for wood soaking up water, lol.

If Anthony's method is too complicated for you, just tie some rocks to the wood and submerge it in clean water until it sinks on its own. Alternatively, you can just let it float in the water till it sinks, but apparently this method takes longer.

HTH.

[fish_tank0311]

Thanks heaps for the help guys. Actually the wood i am finding is on a beach. well sort of because i live on a house right next to the water. Thanks for the saturation info, and yes, it does look quite different to the fish stores wood.

[Carlos & Siran]

if it's off the beach it should sink fairly readily on it's own, within a few short weeks.

But I've found some really cool pieces off the farm under trees and half buried that never sink, even after several years, I finally resined the last one to a large rock, that fixed the bugger.