drift wood question

[mbjrc]

Hey, I have a peace of cyprus wood and a peace of ghost wood soaking in water. The ghost wood appears to be almost completely waterlogged, but the cyprus is being a bit more stubborn. Does anyone know about how long the cyprus will take to become water logged, and any way to speed up the process? Thanks in advance.

[QTOFFER]

You could try boiling the cyprus wood if you have a big enough pot, or soak it in a bucket of very hot water. This will also leach out most of the tannins that would otherwise cause some harmless discoloration of the tank water.

[TankGirl]

It seems to me that often cypress wood is anchored with slate, but that may not be an indication of its ability to sink. My doctor's office has a piece in their tank that has been floating for at least 4 years!

I definitely think you will need to boil it, perhaps in a giant pot outside on the grill if it is too large for a regular pot on the stove.

[FawnN]

Yes, I would agree. By boiling both pieces of wood for a couple of hours it will kill any any nasty bugs too.

I boiled my driftwood for 3 hours and then soaked it in a bucket of dechlorinated water for 1 week just as a percaution. I thinked it really helped it sink too.

[mbjrc]

I was going to boil the cyprus, but it is bigger then any pot I have, even the big 30 quart soup pots. I would only have about half of it in the pot at any time. I figured that it would eventually become water logged because I have heard of cyprus being pulled up from the bottom of bogs. As for mounting a piece of slate to it to keep it down, it would have to be really heavy because the piece I have currently has alot of float to it, but then its only been soaking for like 5 days now. I was hoping that it would get water logged, a few chips of wood that came off in the water have sunk, but I don't know if that means eventually my piece will sink. Also, does depth have anything to do with it, like if i can get the piece in deeper water, will the slight increase in pressure help?

[TankGirl]

No, increase in pressure will cause it to shoot up instead of causing it to sink.

If it was pulled from a bog it would sink when you got it, but there is still hope. The thing about slate is that you put gravel and rock around the wood on top of the slate, so you get more than the weight of just the slate holding the wood down.

You can try soaking it with a cinderblock or bricks on top of the wood to hold it under while it is soaking, or tie it to a brick maybe.