Tank wood…

[Magnum Man]

I remember reading somewhere, that wood added to an aquarium, should always be bark free… when I had tanks 25 years ago, I had one I filled with Maple branches, as it gave me a look I was after, at the time, and I didn’t have any problems with the tank… now, 25 years later, I still have some of those sticks, of course they dried out, for the 25 years that my tanks sat dormant, but I still use a couple, for Repashi sticks, and I have made a trip to the woods, and gathered some new ones for new Repashi sticks… I don’t see a reason that wood has to be bark free… maybe if you were putting a log in a tank, that has 1/2 inch thick bark??? But is there a real reason that the wood should be bark free, or is it an old aquarist tale???

 

[GaryE]

I don't see bark as a problem, except there can be resins between the wood and the bark. That's the reason, as far as I know. That and bark decomposing, or creatures living in the in between zone dying.
If people pick up resinous wood, it isn't good, so I think the advice is of the better safe than sorry type. A lot of aged wood loses its bark, and aged wood is what we want.

 

[Magnum Man]

I wouldn’t personally add anything in the conifer family, even when dried and bark free, and one should not confuse Alder cones, with pine cones, as Alders are not conifers… and I can’t think that I ever added a green cut stick, all have been dead fall branches… and Maple has worked well for me, but we don’t have any Oaks at our place, that I haven’t planted recently… but Oak sticks would have a rougher thicker bark, than the Maple branches, that I’ve used…

 

[GaryE]

Ah, but you have common sense. I'm afraid a lot of people don't. I've seen and heard discussions of putting fresh cut pine branches in tanks. After all, trees are natural....

I'll wager that's been done in the name of Christmas decoration. I'm sure somewhere out there, at this moment, someone is considering it.

All talk of not seeing the forest for the trees aside, we'd be better served by going tree by tree (you can do this with red oaks, but with maples or xyz oaks...). We don't like advice like that, so we get the general statements. Being specific would be hard given how international this forum is.

 

[MaloK]

I try to limit to known proven types of woods that have low or predictable chemical impact.

If I want to use something found outside, I avoid all soft wood, then it goes trough the "cure" before adding it to a tank. Baking or boiling, rinsing, brushing, soaking, repeat if necessary.

The only bark I intentionally used is commercial Catappa. It took a good while (8-10) months to start to decompose and considerably contributed to mulm buildup. A lot like alder cones when they start to shred to powder.

Besides this I always removed the bark from any kind of wood I used.