genie

It seems this is a hot topic-- so sorry if I missed my answer somewhere else.
I want a large piece of wood for my tank. I have a condo along the Ohio River, (the cleaner part) and was wondering if I could use driftwood that has washed up on shore. What would I have to do to it?

agabr123

i know for sure that you can't use sap in your tank, but as for what you CAN use i'm not 100% on that.

if you do decide to use driftwood from outside, i would boil it for at least an hour or two (or pour boiling water over it several times), or let it soak for at least a month, probably more than that.

there is also some kind of wood coating that you can put onto it to keep it from leaching, but i'm not sure what it's called. hopefully someone else can answer that better than i can

genie

that sounds like a pain in the . Can you buy driftwood already ready to go? And is it expensive?

agabr123

lol, yeah you can buy driftwood that's already ready. i'd still recommend boiling it for a little while though to make sure that there's nothing in it and to help with the tannins and such. it can get a little on the expensive side though, but i suppose it depends where you get it. i know you can buy it in bulk on aquabid.com and ebay and things like that, but i'd look at your LFS and see what they have first

Shawnie

. heres a great link as it was talked about recently http://www.fishlore.com/fishforum/aq...driftwood.html

and heres a great link on do's and dont's for driftwood that you find outside http://www.petfish.net/kb/entry/194/

CHoffman

Depending on how big of a piece you want you'll end up spending some bucks on it. If your finding one thats been in the water allot of the work is already done for you. Good luck with it. The links Shawnie provided were super helpful to me I hope they help you as well.