Ways to darken driftwood?

[Homedog98]

Ok... I'm about to treat these pieces of driftwood to put in my tank, but they are very, well... White. I've heard that you can use tea to darken the wood, but was wondering how difficult it is, if it suggested, and how to do it. The two pieces are shown in the pics below. I'm just toying with the idea right now, but I feel like it should be darker.

 

[fort384]

I have never heard of anyone using tea to darken driftwood. I have heard of using tea to stain the water in a tank to create a blackwater environment. I could be wrong, but I just couldn't see tea staining lasting long when it is soaking in constantly moving water.

 

[mfdrookie516]

You got a link to this 'tea treatment'? I've never heard of it either. Driftwood, IME, darkens over time in an aquarium... though I think the lighter pieces look really nice.

 

[mommytron]

i like the lighter pieces as well! when you're buying DW you can pretty much only get the dark ones, so the light ones aren't as common. i'd have to agree that a tea stain wouldn't last. i would just leave them light

 

[Homedog98]

You got a link to this 'tea treatment'? I've never heard of it either. Driftwood, IME, darkens over time in an aquarium... though I think the lighter pieces look really nice.

I'll look for the link lol. Glad I checked!

 

[Mr. Limpet]

What about food coloring?

 

[Homedog98]

Pet Turtle : Driftwood here's your link rook. Now that I go back and look... It doesn't seem like a very reliable site. Doesn't seem like that's the website I found the first time though.

 

[Homedog98]

What about food coloring?

No... But I'm not sure how that would work lol... Not sure I want the driftwood to be bright pink lol.

 

[fort384]

Yeah, they are talking about in the land portion of the tank though. I could see that working. If it is submerged, I think all the tea would just leach back into the water.

 

[Mr. Limpet]

No... But I'm not sure how that would work lol... Not sure I want the driftwood to be bright pink lol.

Haha. I hope my teen daughter doesn't see that, she'll want pink DW in her new tank .

 

[Homedog98]

@fort That was my thinking. I'm just toying with it right now... But I'm not sure I wanna have such dark water if it's not tannins. Definitely curious to see if there's anymore ways to do it.