Sunny Doan Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 Anyone have any tips for preparing hard wood for a tank? I’ve had this piece of wood outside for around 10 years now but I’m not sure if it’s safe for use. I’ve heard that hardwood is generally safe in the aquarium. I’m going to try with a wire brush and brush off all the excess bark and soft wood inside and out. Any other tips would be helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lefty o Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 i would think being outside and dry for many years , it is probably safe to put in an aquarium as long as it hasnt had pesticides or other nasties on it. brush it off, and wash it off really good, and give it a try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunny Doan Posted January 1, 2021 Author Share Posted January 1, 2021 18 hours ago, lefty o said: i would think being outside and dry for many years , it is probably safe to put in an aquarium as long as it hasnt had pesticides or other nasties on it. brush it off, and wash it off really good, and give it a try. Yea the plan was to get rid of all the loose with with some sort of wire brush since there seems to be some wood pieces that crumble and I want to try to get rid of that first before anything else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streetwise Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 I am a huge fan of wood in aquariums, and I have had only positive effects with my medium-hard Vermont water. If this piece is going in a tank with any loaches, corys, shrimp, snails, etc., they will enjoy snacking and burrowing. Your epiphytes might also enjoy the raw nature of the wood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunny Doan Posted January 1, 2021 Author Share Posted January 1, 2021 Hey guys found a nice video about this. The YouTuber is Cinescape and I think I’m going to try this method of preparing the wood. Remove any moving decayed pieces with a wire brush and then plop it into the tank! https://youtu.be/SnIkE9diQ2Q Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunny Doan Posted January 1, 2021 Author Share Posted January 1, 2021 36 minutes ago, Streetwise said: I am a huge fan of wood in aquariums, and I have had only positive effects with my medium-hard Vermont water. If this piece is going in a tank with any loaches, corys, shrimp, snails, etc., they will enjoy snacking and burrowing. Your epiphytes might also enjoy the raw nature of the wood. I love the look of wood as well but am not sure if this specific piece is ready for a fish tank or not. Might have to test it out tonight. I’ve just finished washing it and scrubbing off some decayed pieces currently the wood is sponges when wet. Is it supposed to be like that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnimalNerd98 Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 I watched that video by Cinescaper as well! I only have a little experience with preparing hardwood for an aquarium. I had a Chinese elm bonsai that I got as a Christmas gift a couple of years ago that died when I left for vacation. I saved the trunk and branches until I got the inspiration to prepare it for an aquarium. I boiled it, soaked it, and dried it over the course of 2 months. A lot of sap came out initially and I just kept boiling and soaking it until no more came out. Whenever there was something mushy, I took it off. To test if it was aquarium safe, I soaked it in a bucket and first introduced rams horn snails (2 weeks). Then I added an air stone, changed some water, and added a couple of white cloud minnows (another two weeks). I saw that the fish and snails were not being affected adversely. After that, I felt confident enough to put it into my 10 gallon display tank. I would just soak it and take your time with your piece. Good luck! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streetwise Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 (edited) I should temper my enthusiasm by saying I have not yet tested local wood. I think it would be good to test it in a new tank with plants for a while. Edited January 1, 2021 by Streetwise Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunny Doan Posted January 1, 2021 Author Share Posted January 1, 2021 1 minute ago, AnimalNerd98 said: I watched that video by Cinescaper as well! I only have a little experience with preparing hardwood for an aquarium. I had a Chinese elm bonsai that I got as a Christmas gift a couple of years ago that died when I left for vacation. I saved the trunk and branches until I got the inspiration to prepare it for an aquarium. I boiled it, soaked it, and dried it over the course of 2 months. A lot of sap came out initially and I just kept boiling and soaking it until no more came out. Whenever there was something mushy, I took it off. To test if it was aquarium safe, I soaked it in a bucket and first introduced rams horn snails (2 weeks). Then I added an air stone, changed some water, and added a couple of white cloud minnows (another two weeks). I saw that the fish and snails were not being affected adversely. After that, I felt confident enough to put it into my 10 gallon display tank. I would just soak it and take your time with your piece. Good luck! I might just try it out! I have a 29 gallon with a few random guppy fry that popped up right now and with the size of the wood I'll only be able to soak a few pieces at a time. But I think I'll try and see if the fry and snails do fine in the tank for now and then move on to moving it to my 55 gallon tank where it will barely fit it. It's a large piece (at least 3.5-4.5 feet) Thanks for the help! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunny Doan Posted January 1, 2021 Author Share Posted January 1, 2021 3 minutes ago, Streetwise said: I should temper my enthusiasm by saying I have not yet tested local wood. I think it would be good to test it in a new tank with plants for a while. Yes! I've been waiting on finding a piece of wood to tie my anubias and ferns to, and I just had the idea now to use the perfect piece that was right outside my house the whole time! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbit Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Do you have a plan for how to get it to sink? I have a piece of driftwood the length of my 55 gallon that still isn’t sunk after a year. It’s getting heavier, but it still needs to be held down with suction cups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lefty o Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 best way to cheat floating drift wood, is to get a piece of flat slate stone, drill a hole in it, and screw it to the wood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunny Doan Posted January 1, 2021 Author Share Posted January 1, 2021 3 minutes ago, Hobbit said: Do you have a plan for how to get it to sink? I have a piece of driftwood the length of my 55 gallon that still isn’t sunk after a year. It’s getting heavier, but it still needs to be held down with suction cups. Im planning on trying to weight it down with maybe stones if I can find any. But first I am going to soak it in some tubs outside so the that core of the wood softens and I can remove it. Not sure if it is necessary but I'm afraid of having the wood chunks everywhere. The core I would describe it as "spongy" when wet so I want to remove as much of it until I'm left with hard wood but I'm not sure if I need to. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbit Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 That will be really neat if you can hollow it out. The fish will love it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunny Doan Posted January 1, 2021 Author Share Posted January 1, 2021 4 minutes ago, Hobbit said: That will be really neat if you can hollow it out. The fish will love it! Yea, I was planning on getting some sort of wood eat pleco, and my kuhli loaches into my 55 gallon so they can have some new hiding spots! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 @Sunny Doan Spray it with peroxide. It cleans and disinfects and leaves no residue. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lefty o Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Just now, Paul said: @Sunny Doan Spray it with peroxide. It cleans and disinfects and leaves no residue. excellent idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunny Doan Posted January 1, 2021 Author Share Posted January 1, 2021 1 minute ago, Paul said: @Sunny Doan Spray it with peroxide. It cleans and disinfects and leaves no residue. Great idea, I'll soak the bottom half right now to get any bugs out, then spray it out with hot water and peroxide to disinfect it! Thanks for all the great ideas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FishyThoughts Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 If you have a pressure washer you can use that to remove that soft/spongy wood. I’ve seen that on a few YouTube videos for preparing the wood. I’ve seen some use bleach to disinfect the wood as well, but the peroxide is to be the better option. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadaAmanda Posted January 3, 2021 Share Posted January 3, 2021 Great thread, excellent ideas, and the idea of testing a smaller piece first sounds really smart. I have been put off using found wood after a piece I boiled 2 hours and then soaked for an additional day, once in the aquarium overnight, made my water go super foamy and my mystery snail (only inhabitant to see if wood was safe) was floating around the top with his slime hanging off. Mystery snail is a-ok, and that wood lives in the backyard now. I’m thinking maybe it was a softwood, I’m not sure how to tell. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunny Doan Posted January 3, 2021 Author Share Posted January 3, 2021 1 hour ago, CanadaAmanda said: Great thread, excellent ideas, and the idea of testing a smaller piece first sounds really smart. I have been put off using found wood after a piece I boiled 2 hours and then soaked for an additional day, once in the aquarium overnight, made my water go super foamy and my mystery snail (only inhabitant to see if wood was safe) was floating around the top with his slime hanging off. Mystery snail is a-ok, and that wood lives in the backyard now. I’m thinking maybe it was a softwood, I’m not sure how to tell. I’ll be looking out for foam! Hopefully it doesn’t foam out. I really hope that it isn’t it’s a really nice piece Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted January 7, 2021 Share Posted January 7, 2021 I put driftwood in my tank. I kept boiling it until it sank before I added it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redmare Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 I took some huge pieces of wood from my garden and have them in my guppy tank now. I just sprayed them with a high pressure hose for a while and went for it. They are AGGRESSIVELY buoyant though, I have many rocks strategically placed to keep them down. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunny Doan Posted January 8, 2021 Author Share Posted January 8, 2021 Just now, redmare said: I took some huge pieces of wood from my garden and have them in my guppy tank now. I just sprayed them with a high pressure hose for a while and went for it. They are AGGRESSIVELY buoyant though, I have many rocks strategically placed to keep them down. Currently working on trying to get pressure washer. And some rocks to sink it! I remember trying to sink my first piece of wood and it AGGRESSIVELY jumped out of the water and smacked me back. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Streetwise Posted January 8, 2021 Share Posted January 8, 2021 I have hard water and I keep wood in all my tanks for a nice balance. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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