forgotten driftwood

[Jason A.]

Some years back I purchased a piece of Driftwood from my LFS and I had put it in a bucket with a lid with tap water to soak and after some life events it became forgotten. I'm wondering if using that driftwood in an aquarium is safe or should I add bleach or something else so it can be used? btw the water is very tea like in color lol go figure.

[Cys aquatics]

I would bleach it just to be safe. Because you never know what could have developed on there!

[Demobanana]

6 minutes ago, aquarium kid said:

I would bleach it just to be safe. Because you never know what could have developed on there!

yeah I agree. Good thing you didn't leave it outside with the lid off, then I would just advise putting very lightly diluted bleach in a water gun, kicking the bucket over, then running to a safe spot and start spraying. But just bleaching the wood would probably be a good call.

[Streetwise]

I would not bleach it! I have used old wood in tanks after years.

Edited April 15, 2021 by Streetwise

[lefty o]

i would not bleach it. maybe soak it in very hot water for a little bit, but thats it.

[Jason A.]

maybe search for a large enough pot at harbor freight or some place else and trick my wife into thinking I'm making stew or something lol

[Patrick_G]

I have no idea what the best solution is, but it’s pretty funny to picture you hiding the boiling wood stew from your wife! 

[Betsy]

This feels kind of like finding a secret $20 in the pocket of a coat that's been in the closet all year!  I wish I had some secret driftwood!! 😂👍

[Streetwise]

I love tannins in my hard water, so I do not do anything to remove them. 

[Ryan F]

I'm with the "cook it" crew. If you take it out and let it dry that should kill a lot of the nasties. Cooking it will kill anything that survives a dry out. You might have to "re-log" it after a dry out. But those two things should make it plenty safe for a aquarium.  

[Streetwise]

I don’t see most accidental inhabitants as nasties. I have earthworms living in my folks’ substrate, and a dragonfly grew up in terrestrial moss for me.

[Jason A.]

I wish I knew someone local that had a driftwood stew pot, they are expensive sheesh. maybe I'll hit up my LFS and see if I could rent one LMAO yeah not likely I know

[Brandy]

I would not dry it out or bleach it...you have done all the hard work of soaking it!! I would drain the bucket, and pour boiling water into the bucket if you think there is major contamination, or larger hitchhikers you want to be rid of, but otherwise I would just rinse well and use it. If you had it in your tank it would grow biofilm and potentially micro organisms would colonize it, and we would call it a good thing. As someone on the forum said recently, an aquarium is just a bucket without a handle. 

[Jason A.]

oh wow i didn't think of just pouring boiling water in to the bucket, would the water stay hot long enough to work?

[Andy's Fish Den]

I would just take it and rinse it off and use it. I have a large tub/ tote in my fishroom that I have a few pieces of wood in soaking, have been for a while, I just pulled a piece out of last weekend, rinsed it off and put in a tank. Unless it has a part that has gotten soft and started to rot I would not worry about it. 

[Ryan F]

I would think pouring boiling water should be plenty hot to do the job. Just be careful as the bucket might start melting.

[JettsPapa]

5 minutes ago, Andy's Fish Den said:

I would just take it and rinse it off and use it. I have a large tub/ tote in my fishroom that I have a few pieces of wood in soaking, have been for a while, I just pulled a piece out of last weekend, rinsed it off and put in a tank. Unless it has a part that has gotten soft and started to rot I would not worry about it. 

I'm with @Andy's Fish Den.  I could be wrong, but I believe many people are overly cautious.  Unless there's some specific thing you're concerned about I'd just rinse it outside with a hose and drop it in your tank.

I've picked up dry bois d'arc and pecan limbs in the pasture when I was checking cattle, rinsed them with a hose, and dropped them in a tank with no issues.  The bois d'arc sinks in about two days, the pecan takes longer, but I just let it float until it sinks on its own.

[RockMongler]

If you are really worried, pouring over boiling water is probably fine.  Most critters that can survive for more than a few moments in water that hot, are probably not critters that will be happy or healthy in a fish's body, and most critters that we would worry about in our tanks will die *very* quickly when exposed to such elevated temps, even for very short periods of time. 

Look at how pho gets made.  They pour boiling broth on raw beef (thinly sliced) or shrimp (often sliced in half), and the heat from the water causes the meat to get cooked pretty much instantly (remember that cooking is going to physically change and rearrange and 'destroy' the proteins as they would be normally used).  Dumping boiling water into the bucket should very quickly end any nasties you don't want.  People mostly boil wood for longer when prepping for a tank to leach out excess tannins so it doesn't stain your tank, not so much because such a long boil is necessary to sanitize it.

[Jason A.]

Thank you everyone, such awesome responses, all very appreciated.