Making driftwood on slate look good in bare-bottom tank

[Larry Grenier]

I'm about to setup a large Discus tank (now that some of my babies are agowing-up). I'd like to put a few pieces of driftwood with annubias and maybe Java fern/moss attached but don't want to see the square piece of slate. Any creative ideas on how to make it look good other than suggesting the heavy root wood that doesn't need slate?

[Stephish]

I'm glad you asked this question - I have a piece of driftwood on slate and would like to dress it up after my juveniles have grown out.

[Larry Grenier]

I read where some reefers used this foam stuff to hold rocks in interesting positions. I wonder if there is some kind of thick glue I can put on the slate and spill rocks & gravel on it? Maybe start by placing the slate on a piece of acrylic so the rocks-n-glue can spill over the square slate edge. Hmmmmmm

[korbi_doc]

What a good idea!! How 'bout just using the regular tank silicone & placing stones on it? This works on the bottoms of tanks to avoid the bb look.. Dottie

[GulfCoastDiscus]

i siliconed the driftwwood to the bottom before adding water. later it'll stay down once the wood becomes waterlog.

dan

[Ax]

Some wood will stay down after boiling for one hour or so, but in what to boil is a good quastion. For permanent solution Aqua Silicone is the way to go.

[Larry Grenier]

Dan,

That is the Coolest piece of planted driftwood I've ever seen!

A planted tank AND bare bottomed! Fabulous!

[GulfCoastDiscus]

Thank you Larry, I got tired of siphoning the sand so I removed the whole thing. So much easier to keep clean.

Dan

[korbi_doc]

Wow Dan, I agree with Larry, that makes me want to get more plants on my driftwood, I just use 1 or 2. That is verry pretty!!

[GulfCoastDiscus]

Thank you much. I no longer have to silicone it down. It waterlog now and I can easily moved it to clean underneath. The pot with the Vallesnaria is a bonsai pot. I like it because it's shallow and does not take up much space.

Dan

[nicholas76]

Guys may I ask,


dont you find that you get a lot of tannin leaking from the wood, and food and crap build up around the leaves?

Lovely drift wood pic!! do you have another?


regards

nick

[GulfCoastDiscus]

Guys may I ask,


dont you find that you get a lot of tannin leaking from the wood, and food and crap build up around the leaves?

Lovely drift wood pic!! do you have another?


regards

nick
Hi Nick,
The tannins will eventually dissapear. Bristlenose Pleco does a good job cleaning the mulm that accomulates on the leaves and driftwood.

Dan

[hexed]

I was wondering the same thing so I purchased this driftwood off ebay. This is what your driftwood would look like if you put rocks on the slate with tank seal.

[Ax]

After 4 hours of boiling there is no tint to water (changing water every 20min as you boil), but who has the time.

I did it for my tank.

[Spices]

Dan (GulfCoast),

That is one heck of a beautiful driftwood!! Very nice. I just recently (like last week) transformed my tank to Malaysian Driftwood tank. It certainly does have an effect on people and FISH too. Something about it causes the "full-moon" effect on fish especially. LOL

In regards to the tannins that leaches out from the driftwood, it will take some time before it becomes completely brown-free. Meaning the wood will actually age and become a useless reef, eventually. I put mines (which are three large pieces) in a few buckets of very hot water. And left them overnight to soak. Did it again the second night. Third night, they were in the tank.

I'm gonna post a few photo shots of mine shortly. Check'em out. : )

And, sweeet like bambino you got there too. :angel:

Best regards,
*Angie* ("Fry Girl")

[GulfCoastDiscus]

Hi! Angie,
Haven't seen you in a long time. Ike told me that you were stayin away for awhile. I hope it's not something I said.:) I missed you.

Thank you about my little girl. She's my life. Nothing comes before her except God.:)

You should see the waterlily in the tank. It's constantly blooming. It has a new bloom again and all I have in there is Altums and a few hundred Cardinals.

Post some pics of your driftwood.

dan