Should I boil wood?

[Colin_T]

I would welcome a picture of your canaries! Here is my 'bird from hell'.
View attachment 166514

get him a girlfriend

 

[lottabubbles]

about 40 years ago i brought home a really nice piece of driftwood out of a local stream. it was about 12 inches longest end. i put it in hot water and took a scrub brush to it till it looked clean.
i put it in the aquarium and about 2 weeks later i started to miss some small fish. took some serious looking but there it was, a dragon fly larva had hatched and fully developed and had a neon tetra in each claw.
i was able to net it and there wasn't any more in the aquarium after that.
after that i soak any driftwood even from a store and put it in the microwave for 5 minutes.

 

[jaylach]

about 40 years ago i brought home a really nice piece of driftwood out of a local stream. it was about 12 inches longest end. i put it in hot water and took a scrub brush to it till it looked clean.
i put it in the aquarium and about 2 weeks later i started to miss some small fish. took some serious looking but there it was, a dragon fly larva had hatched and fully developed and had a neon tetra in each claw.
i was able to net it and there wasn't any more in the aquarium after that.
after that i soak any driftwood even from a store and put it in the microwave for 5 minutes.

I never thought of nuking stuff. Of course one could not do that when there is a plant mounted.

 

[Morganna]

Wow!
Even though it was just said earlier in the post "not to boil wood", after reading that story I'm kinda glad I did it any way. I didn't boil my wood because of the tannins, but because it was from my yard and I needed to make sure I wasn't introducing anything into the tank.

 

[Byron]

Well, the moral here is obvious...never use wood you collect, it can have all sorts of issues. And boiling is not going to deal with all, depending. Rotting wood is no fun, it kills fish too. An enclosed aquarium is no where near the same as a natural habitat where all these things have little or no impact.

 

[Morganna]

Well, the moral here is obvious...never use wood you collect, it can have all sorts of issues. And boiling is not going to deal with all, depending. Rotting wood is no fun, it kills fish too. An enclosed aquarium is no where near the same as a natural habitat where all these things have little or no impact.

Okay, I agree. But the wood looked too good I couldn't help myself!
I can show pic and prove it if I have to.

 

[Byron]

Okay, I agree. But the wood looked too good I couldn't help myself!
I can show pic and prove it if I have to.

I have had to resist outdoors wood myself. I did use one piece in my plaudarium housing my Oriental Fire Belly Toad, but I was much less worried that I would be if fish were in the water.

Store bought wood is in 99% of the cases safe, but this can be trouble too. Back in the 1990's I had three large tanks running, two 4-foot 90g and a 5-foot 115g. The fish in the largest began showing signs of lethargy, and while the fish I had kept in this tank for a couple years remained alive if lethargic, any new fish were dead within a coupleof days. I tested for everything I could, and finally sought help from the Curator of Freshwater Fish at the Vancouver Aquarium. After some questions, he suggested I remove all the wood; I did, with a major water change...fish recovered overnight, then about a week later became lethargic again. He said likely it was due to whatever had leeched out from one (or more) pieces of wood had penetrated the substrate and filter, and tearing the tank down was advisable. I did as it was a small price to pay for saving 150 rare and wild-caught fish. Tossed all the wood, new substrate, new filter media...end of problem for years after.

The problem was assumed to be two of the chunks of wood which were softwoods (like cedar or coniferous woods). These have a toxic resin, and I learned the hard way that this wood is not suited to an aquarium.

 

[Morganna]

Good to know! If anything goes downhill, I will try and learn from your story!
I do know what kind of wood it is, and did research to make sure it would be safe.
It is maple, a hardwood, and supposedly safe.

 

[Byron]

Good to know! If anything goes downhill, I will try and learn from your story!
I do know what kind of wood it is, and did research to make sure it would be safe.
It is maple, a hardwood, and supposedly safe.

Yes, maple is a hardwood (oak, beech are two other common woods) and safe from that aspect, but it must be thoroughly dead dry throughout, and one never knows what substances it may have been exposed to and absorbed, only to leech out weeks and months from being placed in the water.