driftwood safe?

[mr_br0kn_drmz]

i recently acquired a nice looking peice of driftwood from a creek around my way. Only half of the peice was submerged when i collected it, so only half of the piece was waterlogged.

So after getting the peice home i scrubbed it clean with an old brush. then proceded to soak it in water. after soaking for a good 2 days i didnt notice any type of tinting in the water. is this normal? and since it was soaked already would it be a wise move to just pop it into the tank?

 

[Mr Miagi]

Its always a bit risky adding iot too your tank from the wild, but plenty of others have done it before. I would recomend soaking it for 2 weeks or boiling the absolute crap out of it.

 

[BettasRFriends]

Well I dont know anything about driftwood since I've never kept one before but everything that I think is unclean (no matter how small) I always boil it

 

[nc_nutcase]

I have 3 or 4 HUGE pieces I plan to put in an indoor pond. I'm going to buy a metal garbage can and put it over a fire in the back yard to boil the stumps...

 

[kenneth_kpe]

the tinting is tanin ! drift wood tends to lowers the ph of your tank a bit and thats what you should watch out for, as for the tanin stain its healthy for a lot of fish, helps the slime coat i think but me personally right now I dont like it !! it inhibits too much of the light that gets to the bottom of the tank...

i have a planted tank and the stain is fine except it blocks light in a way

 

[steelhealr]

Hi..I've posted on this before, but, IMO, I wouldn't add ANYTHING from outdoors to my tank. Although you can scrub it, and boil it, it won't remove anything chemical that is toxic that may have leached into the wood. I think it is a risk and you have to weigh that. It'll be too late after you start putting fish in that you paid for and then start to die. Some bacteria survive as spores that can survive short periods of boiling temps. Just an opinion. Good luck. SH

 

[mr_br0kn_drmz]

thanx a bunch for the info guys. I will do as instructed by you guys and boil the crap outta it.

Would it be a wise idea to maybe set up a a tank full of feeders to just test it?

 

[bobwumba]

good idea. I was actually just thinking about trying that out for myself because i like drift wood but i dont want to pay money for it since its pricey at lfs. I found some nice wood and im going to soak it for a week or so to allow the tannins to leak out and make sure its waterlogged and will sink. Then im going to boil it for a hour or two. Then in come the feeders as testers

 

[guppy_man]

hi about drift wood i got a lizard tank with a nice piece of drift wood init but in my lizard tank there are bugs and other things that he eats would it be safe if i soaked it in boling water and scrbbed the hell out of it so i can put it in my tank or is it a bit risky for my fish??

 

[mr_br0kn_drmz]

well i tested it out with the feeders they all survived. i placed it into the tank yesterday, it wasnt fully waterlogged so i just place a good size piece of slate to hold it in place. the fish are loving it so far, no deaths.

 

[Paul_MTS]

hi about drift wood i got a lizard tank with a nice piece of drift wood init but in my lizard tank there are bugs and other things that he eats would it be safe if i soaked it in boling water and scrbbed the hell out of it so i can put it in my tank or is it a bit risky for my fish??

depends on what type of wood it is.

i have java wood in my lizards which i wouldn't put in my tank.

depending on type you can just scrub any lizard crap off it soak it to remove tannis then use it in your tank though.

 

[bobwumba]

well i tested it out with the feeders they all survived. i placed it into the tank yesterday, it wasnt fully waterlogged so i just place a good size piece of slate to hold it in place. the fish are loving it so far, no deaths.

good to hear that im still in the process of waterlogging

 

[Yenko]

hi about drift wood i got a lizard tank with a nice piece of drift wood init but in my lizard tank there are bugs and other things that he eats would it be safe if i soaked it in boling water and scrbbed the hell out of it so i can put it in my tank or is it a bit risky for my fish??

Assuming the wood was safe for fishtanks to begin with, it should still be safe after it's time in the lizard tank.