sirdarksol

Has anyone here had any experience with using cedar driftwood in a tank?

Cedar has an extremely slow rate of rot, which would seem to make it ideal for tank decoration (presuming you could get it to sink).

However, the reason it has a slow rot rate is that it has some sort of natural "treatment". This is also the reason that cedar bedding is sold for so many different animals. Cedar is fatal to insects.
This is concern number one. Pretty much anything that kills insects will also kill shrimp. So I'm just wondering if anyone has had a tank with shrimp and cedar in it.

Furthermore, there are people who are now saying that cedar can potentially be harmful to other animals, as well.
This is concern number two. I'm afraid that the stuff could be harmful to fish.

Any thoughts or experience? Dino and CWC, I'm looking in your direction. (Not planning on putting cedar in my tank. I was just looking for malaysian driftwood on eBay and found a guy who was selling a beautiful, expensive piece of redwood and suggesting it for aquariums.

Dino

Any of the conifer's ( redwood, cedar, pine), I would be awful leery of placing in a tank.
All of these woods have resins which act as a natural insectaside, as you mentioned.
While I have not placed any in my tanks, I do know of folks who have, and wound up with dead fish for doing so.

sirdarksol

That's my thought. Pine was obvious, to me. The pine that lives around here leaks sap even after it's been kiln-dried.

I'm wondering, however, if there's a difference between cut-and-treated (heat and pressure, not talking about chemicals) and driftwood. With driftwood, there's the possibility that an extended amount of time being exposed to the elements has leeched the toxic compounds out of the wood. Perhaps this is why some people have had success with it. Not something I'd want to play with, though.

On a side note, this thread was started on 50/50 warning for others and scientific curiosity for myself.

Butterfly

Even dried cedar will retain the oils that gives it that delightful aroma. The one piece of Cedar I tried to treat for my aquarium still leaked sap when heated in the oven a year after I put it up to dry. It looks really pretty laying on the shelf
Carol