IIIHawKIII

ok. just got some of the "pre cured/soaked" driftwood from petco. they keep it IN their tanks.

so it's probably got lots of beneficial bacteria on it.......but what else? think i should boil it and just kill everything and let the bacteria grow back on its own? or just chuck it in there?

also it was exposed to air for about an hour, so there is probably significant dieoff anyway.

my gut says to boil it to kill any fungus/bacteria that could be contagious to my fish and let the beneficial bacteria grow back on it's own.

Llama

I say Boil em.

The 'beneficial bacteria' is found mostly in your filter. I don't think a few more on a piece of driftwood are going to do anything too different. Just kill everything, best be safe about it.

IIIHawKIII

i concur. the cons outweigh the pros by a mile. fish diseases vs. a few extra million beneficial bacteria.

boil it is!

IIIHawKIII

well, upon boiling i found some of that tough green algae on both pieces. still ok to put in? or should i try and scrub it all off?

Nate McFin

You could spot treat it with Hydrogen Peroxide, bleach, Flourish Excel, or Algaecide. Be sure to rinse very well especially if bleach is used.

TedsTank

Boil, scrub, rinse....you good to go.

sirdarksol

I agree with the "boil 'em" statement, but it's not true that the nitrifying bacteria congregate mostly in the filter. They grow anywhere there's a surface, and they love porous surfaces better. Driftwood is a decent biological media. Plants are good, too.

We've had members introduce plants and driftwood from an LFS while they were doing a fishless cycle, only to be surprised that they had zero ammonia, zero nitrites, and a good amount of nitrates on the second or third day.

However, the potential for diseases and parasites in a Petco tank is pretty high. With fish, you can mitigate this by quarantining them before you add them to the aquarium. Driftwood, though, would totally be a crapshoot.

IIIHawKIII

yeah. i boiled them. no disease as of yet. i really didn't want to put anything from THEIR tanks into MY tank without completely destroying any living thing on there. not worth the risk. i can grow my own bacteria.

MizRamzi

Anyone ever think of growing bacteria and selling it? A tank made up of just drift wood with all the goodies on it? Sound crazy??

sirdarksol

Yes, that has been talked about before. Shipping is the problem. I may, however, begin growing Christmas moss and selling it at ridiculously low price to folks who have a new aquarium and fish in it.

IIIHawKIII

i was thinkin about growing plants too. but in my apartment, i let MTS get the best of me and now i don't really have a tank for it.

TedsTank

Driftwood of course is totally organic. After being in your tank you may very well get a haze of bacterial growth around it or even what looks like white mold...IT IS OK, DON'T PANIC...leave it alone, it will have to cycle too.