Driftwood From Lakes

[Myuu]

Well over a year ago, I went to visit my brother in Texas. The time we went, Texas was having a really bad drought. We went fishing, and the lake we went fishing at happened to be down 11 feet. A TON of shoreline was exposed, and my eyes caught something; there was tons of wood on the shoreline, some just laying, others buried in the sand. We found some good looking pieces and brought them back. I know most of this forum is from Europe, but the lake I got he wood from is called Eagle Mountain Lake, has any one gotten wood from there?

Even though I've had these pieces of wood for a really long time, I haven't had a tank to put any in, but I'm upgrading my goldfish tank real soon and have the space. I did, however, give a very large piece of driftwood to my school. One of my classrooms had a big 75gal and had no decor. I didn't get to observe the tank for very long, but it didn't seem to hurt the fish. All of the piece have these weird marks (pics below) But I assumed it was from the sand.

I visited texas again recently and brought back more wood. I found it on the shoreline, but the lake was a a normal level I think. Anyway, here's some pictures of some on the pieces;

one of the pieces from over a year ago

Markings from the sand?

A piece brought back recently, it's a square, lol

The other recent piece

Think they're safe?

 

[shelaghfishface]

i have some in my tank has been there for about a month no problems so far took ages to sink tho and i did scrub it all down first with the hose, those are beautiful pieces you have found

 

[Myuu]

I figured I would be doing a lot of scrubbing if I wanted to use them, I don't want any lake-nasties in my tank, lol.

 

[TRDNiteLife]

Scrubbing is fine for removing bark and whatever is growing on the outside. However, it won't kill any potentially dangerous living thing inside the wood. Boiling helps neutralize most living material throughout the wood.

 

[TylerFerretLord]

Considering that this wood was collected over a year ago, I don't think any pathogens could still be on/in it.

 

[sid.sarah]

I have know friends that put the wood in dishwasher with no detergent a couple of times and this work really well!!

 

[TRDNiteLife]

Considering that this wood was collected over a year ago, I don't think any pathogens could still be on/in it.

I visited texas again recently and brought back more wood. I found it on the shoreline, but the lake was a a normal level I think. Anyway, here's some pictures of some on the pieces;