pinky93

I'm thinking about buying a piece of driftwood for my new ten gallon tan but i need to know how u cure it.

Isabella

Simply buy an aquarium safe driftwood piece at your local fish store. When you have it home, soak and boil it until it stops leaching tannins (the orange/yellowish color). These tannins are what can lower your pH a lot as well as cause staining of your aquarium water. Soaking and boiling it will remove the tannins thereby making the driftwood safe for your tank.

Allie

We just soak our in water for a few days and it's ready to go in the tank. Haven't had any problems yets.

Toddnbecka

Depends on what's wrong with it. Personally, I'd consult a tree surgeon before trying to cure it on my own...

Wolfgang8810

definately boiling it

MrWaxhead

If its something I find on a local river bed or peat swamp, I pressure cook it (only for safety reasons). If its a bought piece, I only quickly soak them, as I personally want the ph/kh lowering tannin benefit and tea stained look to my water (I also run a wet dry peat filter to add to that look). All of my fish thrive in lower ph soft kh water and the light tannin staining adds substantially to there colouration. So its really personal preference on that one, I would at least rinse it at the bare minimum though. Even with lots of tannin releasing wood and peat filtering my tank is only slightly discoloured and I personally prefer it that way. Its a more natural look and is more like my fishes native waters, as they in no way come from crystal clear water at all.
These were taken a week apart at different times of the day, so the fish reflect differently, but personally i like the way the every so slightly stained water punches the fish colours.

Allie

We get driftwood which is already dead...we have had a few pieces which looked odd so we didn't use them.

Isabella

Mr. Waxhead, is this your tank? It looks AMAZING. Wow ! Using CO2 injections I suppose? How large is it? What plants? What lighting and substrate? What fish kinds and how many?

MrWaxhead

Yes this is one of my tanks, I posted all the stats of it in the members tank section if your curious to its size, and water parameters etc. Thanks for the compliments

Isabella

Will definitely check it out Thanks

TeHpWNaG3

Personally, I start with a clean steel-bristle brush and scrub every square inch of the wood to clean it up a bit and prep the surface for a good soak. (High-grade wood should have been scrubbed and pre-washed by the company of origin, but I like smoothing the wood even more to protect my fish) I boil my wood for about 1-2 hours and then let it soak in the tub over night--maybe even two days if the tub water is initially a dark tea color (which it usually is). More times than not, the wood may still tint your tank water. This is not a bad thing but, as mentioned above, it will lower your pH a bit. However, I tend to think the wood itself will do that over time. The tannin release is a defense mechanism to prevent organisms and such from "eating" the wood. Even in death the wood fights on!

Few tips:

-Don't put "found wood" in your tank. These may harbor parasites. If you must insist on putting found wood in your tank, scrub it, boil it and boil it some more. Opinions may vary but, generally, the consensus is nay. If the wood was found dry, different organisms may be present and could pose an entirely new threat to your tank. Bottom line: User beware!

-Don't put over-sized pieces in your tank. More size means less water! Your bio-load capabilities will drastically change and your tank may become severely over-stocked virtually overnight. I have a fairly large piece of wood (40-50 pound piece) in my 120gal that seems to displace up to 10-15 gallons of water. Ideally, buy the wood before cycling the tank so that the bio-load and wood develop together. The filter will then establish to the actual capacity of the tank. However, since the capacity will reduce by adding the wood, it's not required. I just like that fact that the tannin-stained water is gone by the time the tank finishes the cycle.

-Tea-colored water looks like , despite some opinions. Good news is, it won't last. Water changes will gradually reduce the amount of color. Also, it's very common that a silky white fungus will start to grow on your wood in a couple days. This is normal and should disappear. A second boil should eliminate it for good.

-You may want to add just a tad of water conditioner while introducing the wood, especially in smaller tanks. Depending on the size of the wood, there may be a slight amount of tap water contaminants. Nit picky, but worth mentioning.

MrWaxhead

Well my tanks are about 80% found wood and I have never had a problem with it, yes there can be risks, but I don't just boil my found wood. I pressure cook it, so the chance of anything surviving are slim to none. And as far as tea stained wood and it looking like , that is purely your view on things (many others too, but its personal preference really. I find it very pleasing looking as it tends to look more like the fishes natural home, as least for the species of fish that I keep. And it also really brings out there colours, cardinals look much more vibrant in tea stained water then they do in crystal clear water.

It does create challenges too though, as the darker your water the harder it is for the light to reach the bottom for plants etc. But I also find that a benefit as well, as corries and other fish don't really like screaming bright light beaming down on them.