Can you use fresh cut wood as driftwood? Will it ever sink?

[Zander]

I found a piece of driftwood by a lake. It still had about 70% of its bark. Mostly it's pretty fresh. I boiled it for 20 minutes or so, changing the water halfway through.

I've been reading online to find ways of making it become waterlogged faster, and a few people have said a piece too fresh will take years to sink.

Have any of you ever used a close to fresh piece of wood before? How long before it sank?

It's only been about a day and a half, but it still floats. I'm just wondering if this is a usable piece.

[Aeonflame]

I wouldnt put fresh wood in a tank. There is too high a possibility of sap and other organics leeching into the water.

[Zander]

It's not the kind of wood that has sap. And like I said I boiled it so that should have killed any bacteria or bugs on it. What other organics could there be?

If you are saying tannins and lower PH, that is what I am going for.

[Lady Hobbs]

All wood has some sap. And wood that goes in the tank needs to be hard wood. It has to be very old and dried out, not newly cut.

There's too much downed old wood to pick up without getting something else.

[Zander]

Is there something unsafe about it? Or will it just never sink?

I didn't cut it myself or anything. A beaver did. That's why I chose the piece. It has some cool beaver marks on one side. I got it on the side of a lake, and it was the only one on the entire lake that seemed to have beaver marks on it so it seems like a safe bet it came from upstream. I say this because I've seen many websites recommend getting logs from the edges of lakes right after a rainy day, which is exactly what I did.

[Skrippdaddy13]

Just throwing my opinion out there for ya Zander, I definitely would not use it unless it's been dead a long time. It sucks when you find some cool stuff for your setup and people tell you not to use it, ( trust me I know) but do yourself a favor and find some wood suitable for a freshwater tank. From what I understand there are too many various toxins from alot of wood that could wreak havoc on your tanks Eco system. Don't chance it and get yourself some mopani, or manzinita, or soak some very dead driftwood forever until it's waterlogged. You won't regret those choices, but it's quite likely you'll regret throwing green , living wood in there. Boiling does not solve it all. Just my 2 cents.

[Cliff]

Is there something unsafe about it? Or will it just never sink?.

Both

As other members have mentioned, the sap will leach out and cause problems with your water quality. Not a matter of "if", just a matter of how bad really.

You would be better off to take the advice already given and find yourself a nice pc of dried/cured hardwood that you can soak in water until it sinks, or purchase a pc of driftwood meant for aquariums.