Driftwood question

[Asult316]

Hey I have a quick question, my brother lives in Miami and he got me 2 pieces of driftwood from their his local fish farm, they are a lot cheaper than here in NY where I live. He is bringing the pieces to me when he comes to visit, in the meantime he has housed these pieces of driftwood in his tank for me. The flight is about 2 and a half hours or so plus whatever amount of time between the flight and when he removes the pieces from the tank....so my question is, will the wood be damaged or anything depending on how much time it’s out of water?

[SueD]

Driftwood is usually sold dry - why would think it would be damaged? Is he storing it in his tank to waterlog it for you so it will sink? It won't be "damaged" just by being out of water - it may just dry out some. Then you'll just have to waterlog it again. What kind of wood is it?

[Asult316]

I know it’s usually sold dry, but since it was treated and then my brother kept it in his tank for me until it was time to travel. I was just worried that if it was now taken out of water for a 6-7 hours that it might be detrimental in someway to the wood itself. It’s Malaysian driftwood.

[Slaphppy7]

Should be just fine, as long as your brother's tank didn't have any "nasties" in it....how was it "treated"?

[SueD]

Malaysian driftwood usually sinks very easily, right away, even - it's why I like it a lot. I don't see that there will be any issues from traveling to you.

[Asult316]

The wood was treated at his local fish farm. They keep it in a tank with constant running and refreshed water for a week. My brothers tank is a relatively new tank set up that he has.

Unfortunately the wood was riddled with snails and now I have an infestation. I have a clown loach so hopefully he will take care of the problem.

[WhistlingBadger]

Not only is it OK for wood to dry out between houses, I recommend it. I find most of my driftwood in local creeks. I always scrub it down then let it bake in the Wyoming sun for a couple weeks, just to avoid problems like the one you're facing. Infestations of almost any kind are annoying at best. Hope your loach takes care of it. Lesson learned, right?

[Boundava]

I know someone who bought bog wood online and didn't pre-treat and wound up with an infestation of nematodes. She had to break her whole tank down and bake the wood, the nematodes destroyed her cycle and killed her fish. Kudos to Tom for being brave to use local DW. I also like the tannins that come from Mopani, which is very sense and hard for critters to hitch a ride unseen (my logical assumption, lol).

Good luck with the snails. If your loach is as voracious a snail killer as my weather loaches are, you should be clear of the infestation shortly.

[sudhirr]

Whether its collected driftwood or driftwood brought online, you should always brush clean, boil it, then quarantine the piece for a few days before you do anything with the driftwood.

[Boundava]

Well if you are purchasing DW from say ZooMed or another branded wood, it has already been treated and is good to go. I don't usualy do anything to that other than rinse it.