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Driftwood?

PheonixKingZ

PheonixKingZ

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Hello TFF! How has your day been?

I have 2 questions:

1( Where can I find cheap, safe driftwood? At my LFS driftwood cost $18 for a small piece. I just can’t afford that.

2( I have this old piece of really light driftwood, that has a cool shape. Is it safe to put in my 29g once I soak it? It has been in my house forever and I remember finding it outside.

Here is the piece I speak of:
image.jpg

(I have a 5G bucket that I used to soak driftwood in the past.)
Thanks in advance. :)
 
Maybe boil it? I am hoping to find some driftwood at the beach and boil it to put in my tank. Store bought is just so darn expensive
 
JuiceBox52 said:
I may ask my grandma if she has any... she scavenged the beaches a lot! Are you near any beaches?
Click to expand...
Ah never mind I see you are from Kentucky
 
You have to be careful with collected wood. Boiling may deal with some critters, but it also causes the wood to rot apart faster. And only collect from a safe location. Hardwood (beech, oak, etc) should be safe as far as the wood itself; never use coniferous wood.

Wood collected in water is obviously fraught with risks. Dried (dead dry) wood like the pice in post #1 should be safe from this aspect as it has dried out completely. However, that does not mean it may not contain toxins. Wood will readily absorb liquids.
 
I am wondering the same thing, driftwood is very expensive here too. I went down to lake Michigan awhile back to look for some. On the upper part of the lake where there is very little industry and found a few pieces on the beach. I suppose I could take a drive over to Lake superior there is very little industry there too. The lakes are very high this time of year so there was not much beach to search.
 
This is what I found, I think I will wait until spring when the snow melts and I can go into the the sand dunes and woods next to the lake and look. There are a lot of birch trees there.
 

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@Byron has made many informed posts in the past on this subject. If I remember correctly a hardwood, completely dried, is good and any resinous wood like juniper is no good at all. Boiling may not be advantageous but I wonder if soaking in a strong salt solution might be good.
 
Is Cedar considered bad? Because I found this nice piece of cedar and I soaked it for about a month. It looks great in my tank and I have had no problem with it yet.

I would like to find some nice looking driftwood around my property, so I don’t have to spend $100 on 2 pieces of driftwood. Where would be a good place to look?
 
I just read an interesting article on preparing driftwood.

It said that with softwood, you can dig your fingernails in it. Hardwood, you can’t. Is this right?
 
Deanasue said:
I would scavenge from lakes and stay away from oceans/Gulf. Oil spills can soak in and make wood toxic.
Click to expand...
Ok, I have a stream and a lake on my property. I’ll go look today, and post pictures of any I find.

It’ll give me a chance to get outside. :)
 
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