real driftwood

[Incredulous_Ed]

I was at a branch off a river the other week, and found a round piece of wood in the water. It appears to have some bark on it, but it is very tough to get off. I've been soaking it in water and no tannins have been realeased. Is this thing real driftwood and is it safe to put in my aquarium?

[cocoa_pleco]

weird. Theres lots of different driftwood around, like malaysian etc. Do the whole soak in bleach thing and it should be good

[Drumachine09]

Does it look to be a section of telephone pole? if so, no, its not safe. Telephone poles are soaked in a chemical called creosote to prevent rotting. I have a nasty ear infection from swimming in a lake, and i was perscribed a medicine that contaned creosote. Nasty smelling stuff it is.

[cocoa_pleco]

isnt creosote that crap that builds up from wood burning in chimneys?? eww


I dont want to start a new thread for this, but Today I bought a huge chunk of driftwood for my new 20g tank, and am soaking it to get rid of the brand tannin, and im wondering if its true a bit of tannin looks good?

It said its cool on the label for the driftwood

[Chrona]

isnt creosote that crap that builds up from wood burning in chimneys?? eww


I dont want to start a new thread for this, but Today I bought a huge chunk of driftwood for my new 20g tank, and am soaking it to get rid of the brand tannin, and im wondering if its true a bit of tannin looks good?

It said its cool on the label for the driftwood

lol, I doubt any driftwood company would say the tannins from their driftwood make the water look terrible ;)

In all honesty though, it does look good if you have a natural planted tank. My LFS has this really nice 20 gallon natural display setup that I'm shooting for. The driftwood darkens the water enough so that the bright lights don't shine as far down into the tank.

[Incredulous_Ed]

No, This thing is definetly not from a telephone pole. Do I have to pull the bark off before I put it in?

[Drumachine09]

I would, just to be safe. you dont need any extra debris to clean up.

[cocoa_pleco]

yeah, rip off the bark and do the whole soak thing

[Drumachine09]

And if its a huge stump like thing, you might even want to take a 1 1/2 inch spade (paddle) bit, and a spade (paddle) bit extender, and drill some tunnels for your fish in it. I think that would be kinda cool.

[kimmers318]

The tannins will not hurt your tank (from the store bought wood). I used to always think I wouldn't like the look of "tea" colored water since I generally like bright and colored things (you should see my collection of pens!) but I decided to allow my last piece of bogwood to go into my clown loach tank while it still had tannins to leak and am totally surprised at how nice and natural it looks! The loaches love it as it diffuses the light and are much more active in the tank during all hours. Can't wait til I have the time to change the large tank over to sand for them and give them the room they really will enjoy! Give it a try, if you decide you don't like it, it is real easy to reverse.....remove the wood, do a water change, and wala....no more tannins!
As for the "found" piece of wood, I personally would do a search and try to identify the wood. If you can't identify what it is and see if there are possible negatives to adding it to a tank I would stay away from it. A bleach soak followed by a dechlorinator soak will kill any parasites that may be living on the wood, but it will not destroy any natural part of the wood that may not be healthy for fish.

[Incredulous_Ed]

It's kind of a long branch with a small tunnel and it doesn't release any tannins. I'll go back to where I fouund it and see what kind of trees are there as well as look for more pieces. Thanks for the help!

[Lady Hobbs]

No, This thing is definetly not from a telephone pole. Do I have to pull the bark off before I put it in?
Ed, if the bark doesn't easily fall off, it may not have been dead wood long enough and still contains sap. Wood has to be very, very old and this makes me wonder about about the piece you found.

I scrubbed mine with a wire brush (in the bathtub) and soaked it in table salt (cheaper than aquarium salt) for several days and then several days more in plain water. Salt will also kill any parasites and in my opinion, better than using bleach. Wood is poreous and may soak up more bleach water than you want.

Some, however, do use the bleach method and if you do, soak it good in de-chlorinated water afterwards. Tannis don't hurt the fish any. And it disappears in about a month with water changes.