PineSong Posted January 1, 2023 Share Posted January 1, 2023 Wondering if anyone has tried this? I have a dense chunk of wood that I want to add to my 29. Last time I waterlogged it, it took about three months of being held under water by a brick in a bucket before it stopped floating. It has been dry on my shelf for a few months and I am impatient to get it in my tank for the shrimp. I was thinking I could drill a bunch of little holes in the backside and perhaps accomplish two things— faster water logging and additional shrimplet hides. has anyone done this? I don’t want to accidentally make it more buoyant, and my understanding of physics is limited. Bug Bites for scale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJenna Posted January 1, 2023 Share Posted January 1, 2023 Following! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveO Posted January 1, 2023 Share Posted January 1, 2023 If it were mine i would do the old [drill the slate to the bottom] trick. It's such a nice piece of wood, I would not want to damage it in any way. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PineSong Posted January 1, 2023 Author Share Posted January 1, 2023 On 1/1/2023 at 9:53 AM, DaveO said: If it were mine i would do the old [drill the slate to the bottom] trick. It's such a nice piece of wood, I would not want to damage it in any way. It is a lovely piece of wood, it is so pretty I kind of hated taking it off my bookshelf to put it back in the tank. I don’t have any slate 😞. I can check at the stone yard where I usually get my stone but it’s hard for me to get there so that won’t be instant gratification! Dangit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pseudomugil Posted January 1, 2023 Share Posted January 1, 2023 A piece of tile works well too. My thought on the wood is drilling holes will make it lighter allowing the buoyancy to have greater effect. In theory, it makes sense, but I would hate for you to have a holy piece of wood intent on walking on water for another three months. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PineSong Posted January 1, 2023 Author Share Posted January 1, 2023 On 1/1/2023 at 10:51 AM, pseudomugil said: A piece of tile works well too. My thought on the wood is drilling holes will make it lighter allowing the buoyancy to have greater effect. In theory, it makes sense, but I would hate for you to have a holy piece of wood intent on walking on water for another three months. Ooh, tile is easy to get! Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLFishChik Posted January 1, 2023 Share Posted January 1, 2023 What about just filling a bucket or tote and letting it soak a few days until it sinks in it’s own? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PineSong Posted January 1, 2023 Author Share Posted January 1, 2023 On 1/1/2023 at 11:16 AM, FLFishChik said: What about just filling a bucket or tote and letting it soak a few days until it sinks in it’s own? It took 3 months last time… I don’t think a few days will do it. Not sure what kind of wood it is but it’s very heavy for its size so I guess it’s dense. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattyM Posted January 1, 2023 Share Posted January 1, 2023 I'd be worried that more holes could also mean more air pockets. I have a cheap 3 gallon enamel pot that I've used for boiling driftwood - as it will leave a stain. That's what finally got my pieces to sink. -- not related -- @JJenna if you want to follow a topic, you need to use the "Follow" button towards the top right of the screen, commenting won't send you notifications for a post you've commented on (at least for me 🤷♂️). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The endler guy Posted January 1, 2023 Share Posted January 1, 2023 i assume you already tried boiling it? drilling holes probably could have a positive and negative result (air gets trapped/ water can get more easily into the wood) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT_ Posted January 2, 2023 Share Posted January 2, 2023 I've never tried it but maybe pressure cooker? If it'll fit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rube_Goldfish Posted January 2, 2023 Share Posted January 2, 2023 If you don't have slate, you could still use any other kind of stone. Either one big enough to weigh it down, super glued to the wood, or multiple smaller ones. If you don't like the looks of the stone(s), maybe you can bury them under the substrate. Or you can do what I did, which was to balance a stone on top for a couple weeks. It looked goofy, but it worked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odd Duck Posted January 2, 2023 Share Posted January 2, 2023 I had wood soaking for months before I put it in my 100 G nanofish tank, then still had to attach it to rocks to keep it down. Then when I finally released the rocks from their zip ties, they still floated after nearly a year in water (over 9 months in the tank and weighted down). So I finally drilled the pieces and attached them to slate pieces. If you don’t have slate (Amazon has small slate charcuterie boards that were reasonably priced), then tile will work. Pick a tile color that matches your substrate and it will practically disappear even if you don’t bury it deep. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schuyler Posted January 2, 2023 Share Posted January 2, 2023 I would be worried that holes could speed up decomposition Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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