Nice Piece of wood

[MississaugaJohn]

I have a nice piece of Drift wood for over 30 years now( its in the front garden of my house right now ) I was thinking would look great in my Aquirium. Its about close to 4feet long.....anyone know how to prepare the wood in order to be able to go into the aquirium I tryed it once and the water turned all tea coloured.
If any one knows please let me know

tanks

JS

[brewmaster15]

Its Natural for wood to give off tannins in the water...in the wild its one of the things that make "black water".. I personally like the look and feel it benefits discus but the only way to remove it is with water changes or carbon... you can speed things up by boiling...but thats going need a big pot!:)

hth,
al

[pcsb23]

If its been in the garden for any length of time it may not leech much tanin now... I would give it a good brush down with a stiff brush and a little diluted bleach (10%), rinse well and get it in a tank, very nice size too!

[Tropical Haven]

I agree with Paul, just scrub it down with a bleach mixture and you should be fine.

[greyhoundfan]

if it has been in your garden has this wood been exposed to fertizlizer and pesticides? it could potentially leak this out as well.. boil, wash, rinse well.

[Ed13]

if it has been in your garden has this wood been exposed to fertizlizer and pesticides? it could potentially leak this out as well.. boil, wash, rinse well.

Yes think about this too!
No matter how old it is, how much you boil it, bleach it etc., if its real wood it will release tannins and/or alter the water chemistry because its part of life, it will decompose under water. Doing as described above will help it retard or accelerate these process in your tank. I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't expect it to never release tannins or tint the water

On a side note, but I can't recommend it to anyone:confused:;)
When I kept various species of plecos(many panaques) i made my own bog wood. First the pieces sat under the sun for weeks and were poked or cut until the sap was out. Then into rain collecting barrels(under the hot caribbean sun with really warm water) they went, lots of water during this part. After they sank salt was added weekly. After the water started looking like week coffe or tea(but it was clean and clear) I added leaves or vinegar to further reduce the ph. Then I left them in the barrels collecting rain water for a year or more. Coconut shells and especially mango wood were loved by my Panaque nigrolineatus
I'll stop my boring story here, lol

[greyhoundfan]

Ed, I enjoyed your story.. :D

[Ed13]

Ed, I enjoyed your story.. :D
And the Panaque enjoyed the wood! I kept him in the pond and he could be heard in the middle of the night scraping that wood, really loud actually.

I was told by many people it would not work, thats why I typed it.

[MississaugaJohn]

well I wonder what the stores do when they sell drift wood and attached it to slate?