HUGE DRIFTWOOD

[Guest]

I won a piece of driftwood off of Ebay.. honestly, i thought the piece was half the size but it turned out to be HUGE. Anyway, i love it, you can't really see in the pic but there are a bunch of caves and holes in it for the fishies to hide in... even my pleco can fit through them easily. So i had to rearrange my whole tank and it didn't sink, so its wedged between the divider at the top and the tank to keep it from floating up, untill it gets water logged. I was thinking about cutting the piece in half but i kinda like the way it looks now. I think some Java moss would be nice growing on it though. WHat do you think?

 

[dnaelting]

Nice centerpiece. Will look even better with some plant life growing on it, I agree.

 

[Guest]

btw, did i mention that it still floats? i have it set right now so the top holds it down, but how long will it be before it gets water logged? because if i tilt it a little bit, you can see water above it and it doesn't stick out at the top.

 

[greenmaji]

Yea, you mentioned in your fist post that it still floats.. and Wow thats a big chuck of driftwood.. thats in the 55 gallon right.. some plants growing on it would be very cool!

 

[tetrin]

well, i got a piece from ebay that still floats after about 8 months. i weigh it down by two big sones wedged into the driftwood. you can attach the piece to a piece of slate too.

 

[Guest]

OH man... i didn't have anything big enough to boil it... so i just rinsed it as best i could... now its tanning the water! and I DO have activated carbon! This sux... now i have yellow water. I guess i will just have to keep putting carbon in the filter until it clears up right? is there anything else i could do?

 

[Guest]

OH man... i didn't have anything big enough to boil it... so i just rinsed it as best i could... now its tanning the water! and I DO have activated carbon! This sux... now i have yellow water. I guess i will just have to keep putting carbon in the filter until it clears up right? is there anything else i could do?

Nope, if you just get pieces of wood from a stream (which is what all the people do on Ebay) you are pretty much stuck with yellow water and floating. I just bought my driftwood from Big Als, the Aquarium Designs pieces that don't make your water yellow and are attached to a heavy base so they sink from day one. I spent $50 total for 3 big pieces, one for my 12g, and two for my 55g. Well worth it IMO.

 

[hashbaz]

My driftwood was just barely too big to fit in my largest pot. So I put it in a 5 gal bucket and covered it with boiling water. Then I wrapped a towel around the bucket to keep in the heat. I repeated this a few days in a row. The water stayed hot for quite a long time. Using hot water in the bucket made the tannins come out a lot faster than cold water.

 

[ace1uno_00]

nice piece of drift wood.
That is HUGE.

 

[Billsgate]

My driftwood tans my water as well...but I don't mind too much, since in South America the water is even 'dirtier'.

A thing you could do is take the piece out, cut it in half, and put the two pieces with the 'cut' side to the back of the tank. You can weigh them down by attaching a piece of rock to the base of the driftwood with some aquarium silicone. If you cut it in half and have 2 pieces, the back side of your tank will be nearly completely covered!
That's what I would do.

 

[greenmaji]

Cut it in half..LOL.. Got a chain saw handy?.. I guess a big band saw could do it to.. LOL. I think the covering the back of the tank Idea is good though..
It might take a year or more for it to sink though...
And the tans might be coming for just as long.. you can get alot of carbon into the AC70, it should be good for 30 days or so as well, but you might want to try a hot water method.. Like in a bucket..

 

[Toirtis]

Wow, that is one incredibly nice piece of bogwood....very nice centrepiece for your tank.

 

[Guest]

thanks, my clown pleco is in love with it, since i didn't get to clean it very well, its leaching tannins , but he seems to be enjoying it very much. (i did sterilize it by pouring boiling water over it)

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=54811

thats the link where we are discussing my orange water.. lol.