# wanting to put driftwood in



## springmom (Mar 17, 2006)

Hello all;

I am getting my 55 gallon freshwater going, and the cycling is going really well. However, our municipal utility district (MUD) draws from a well for our water, and it is HARD water. Texas limestone does that.

If we end up putting African cichlids in, fine, but I really want to do South American cichlids, which means softer water. We have peat pellets in the canister filter, and I have put in some plants (nothing fancy, just basic fish-can-hide-in-'em plants) but I want to put in driftwood both because it looks nice and because it can help in keeping water soft.

Two questions: when you start with dried-out driftwood, I assume it's ok to let it soak to waterlog it IN the aquarium, and eventually it will sink? Or should I just set up a bucket of dechlorinated water and let it sit in there until it's waterlogged? Second question: what I can find around here is grapewood, which is not really driftwood but is heat treated, dried, and interesting looking. Is grapewood ok to use in the tank, or should I go scour the edges of Lake Houston and actually find real straight-from-nature driftwood (which would likely be cypress)?

Any input is much appreciated.

Jan


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## RockabillyChick (Nov 18, 2005)

grape wood is fine, but it can take months, sometimes years for dry driftwood to sink fully. to make it easier, you should attach the wood to a heavy piece of slate. a slate tile from the hardware store is fine, and you can hide it under the substrait. if you can find some malaysian driftwood, that doesn't need to be waterlogged, it will sink dry.

as for "wild" driftwood, some people say not to risk it, others say it doesn't really matter. its up to you. i don't see much of a problem with it, i would just soak it in some bleach water, then in some 4x dechlor water for a couple days, empty bucket, refill with more 4x dechlor water and soak a few more days to make sure there are no bugs or worms or weird bacteria or parasites in/on it.


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## springmom (Mar 17, 2006)

Thanks! I had heard somewhere that it tends to get mushy and to foul, but it's good to know it doesn't.

Jan


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## wildtiger (Jun 8, 2005)

I personally would not soak wood in any kind of bleach water soloution at all. If you find that your wood does not sink you can always add a large rock to sit on top of it to keep it down until it waterlogs its self.

What I do when I'm preparing wood for my tank is, I found a large enamel pot at a garage sale (the kind you cook a turkey in) and I boil any wood that is small enough on the stove, the main reason I do this is because I don't care for the tanned water look in my tanks. I have been known with larger pieces to just rinse any loose dirt off in the sink and into the tank they go but I would not use any type of wood that has been in salt water for a fresh water tank. 

Just my .02 cents


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## RockabillyChick (Nov 18, 2005)

yeah, if you go out and get wood from a lake, you can boil it.

many people don't seem to understand that chlorine is very unstable and it evaporates very quickly (within 24 hours) from water left to sit. i have used bleach to clean out fish tanks that a fish died in and just let them dry completely and never had a problem.

some alternatives to bleach on wood is to use a heavy concentration of salt to kill organisms on the wood, and/or use a lot of vinegar.


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