When using wood whats the curing process?

[Kodeman]

I know that when you get wood or roots for your tank if has to be dead wood with no pesisites or bugs. But what about it after that? I know i need to soak it till it sinks but what else can I do to make sure it's safe for fish or what kinda wood do I need to get to put into my tank if I don't wanna go buy it from a store. I live in norcal so it's easy for me to go hunting for dead wood or driftwood. Any Input is greatly appriciated and I just don't like paying hella money for something I can find myself in nature for free.

 

[Fresh2o]

Some prep procedures including boiling, baking in an oven, and power washing. I've only tried the first (followed by some soaking).
You want to make sure that the wood is dead and solid; pressing a finger nail into the surface should not leave a mark. You also want to avoid any wood that may have contained sap (pine) or strong aromas (cedar).
If you could get ahold of manzanita wood, that would be great.

 

[V227]

It is more fun if you can buy quality aquascaping material cheap and even better when you can collect it for free. Regarding driftwood, Hard woods. No sappy wood like pine or cedar. Watch out if collecting driftwood from lakes with heavy boat traffic. Wood tends to absorb boat oil. I find it best to collect dead branches that are still attached to the tree. As long as the
Wood is dead and dry, I just peel off as much bark as possible, rinse it off then anchor it in the tank. Pictured is one of my tanks scaped with Crepe Myrtle and Red Bud tree branches. The plant is an unknown variety I collected from a nearby farm pond.

 

[The_Dude]

I've heard boiling it is the thing to do at least 20 minutes..

 

[The_Dude]

Nice points on sap and cedar, from fresh thanks I'm looking for the perfect driftwood myself, planning on boiling the heck out of it!

 

[Fresh2o]

Don't be afraid to take a saw to the driftwood to shorten branches and level out the base.
You can drill a hole in an appropriately sized piece of slate and affix it to the base of the DW using stainless steel screws. Hidden in the substrate, this will also help keep the the DW in place (for those who don't like waiting).

 

[elkendog]

I have a large driftwood piece that was purchased for an aquarium. It was really too large for the tank. The driftwood was then used in a bathroom to hold certain pieces of jewelry etc and was strictly decorative. Of course, bathrooms get hairspray and all sorts of things in the air. Do you think that if this piece was cleaned up, boiled and soaked for awhile that it would still be ok to use in a tank? It has been sitting in an attic for nearly 5 years now maybe more.

 

[V227]

I think the best answer would be "Probably". The attic should get hot enough in the summer to bake out most impurities. After boiling you might let it air dry in the yard for a week or two in a spot where there is little chance of contamination. After all, who really knows what commercial driftwood is exposed to anyway between the point of harvest and your LFS. Good luck.

 

[Kodeman]

thanks guys.. im lucky enough yo live in CA and can find both ocean driftwood which i havd used after soaking fot a long timd with changing the water when it gets dark or about once a week.. im going to try boiling to speed up the process this time. i also am going on a mission tomorrow in the mountains for manzanita branches and other hard woods along with rock like slate.. would OAK be an ok type of wood to use or strickly hard woods ? and what other types of rock are popular..

 

[V227]

Harvest all the Manzanita you can legally find. I bought a big Mazanita root for 15 bucks from a fish store going out of business. Weeks before, the same root was priced at over $100. Dead oak branches are fine. As for rocks, I primarily scape with Honeycombed Limestone and pieces of Petrified wood. I'll attach a pic showing the rocks and driftwood.

 

[Kodeman]

I grew up in the mountains of CA so I know exactly where to go... Its easy to find it here in norcal if your above 1000 feet. As for rocks thanks for the info. I know of an abandoned rock quarry with limestone..also Is quartz ok to use? Or slate?

 

[V227]

Quartz is totally safe. Slate is safe but don't mistake slate for shale, an oil rock. With limestone, it will harden your water and raise your ph but with regular weekly water changes it greatly moderates those water fluctuations. A big plus with with limestone is that it buffers the water guarding against ph crashes.

 

[Delapool]

Quartz is totally safe. Slate is safe but don't mistake slate for shale, an oil rock. With limestone, it will harden your water and raise your ph but with regular weekly water changes it greatly moderates those water fluctuations. A big plus with with limestone is that it buffers the water guarding against ph crashes.

On the shale that would geologically be an interesting place where you are (I assume nearby oil or gas drilling). Best we could hope for here would be fossils in the shale (which might be too soft to survive in water anyways sadly).

 

[Buckfins]

Two hours on boil....Minimum

 

[Kodeman]

On the shale that would geologically be an interesting place where you are (I assume nearby oil or gas drilling). Best we could hope for here would be fossils in the shale (which might be too soft to survive in water anyways sadly).

Naw there isn't any gas or oil drilling where my hometown is. I know multiple mines and quarries and also land/rock slides. I think it will be pretty easy to find tons of rock and manzanita no problem. I'm from the western Sierra mountains In a gold rush mining town.

 

[V227]

I live in the Osage hills of Oklahoma, surrounded by oil and gas wells. Many of the creek banks are lined with brittle oil shale. Some of the surrounding hills have outcroppings of fossilized coral reefs from prehistoric times when Oklahoma was an inland ocean. The floor of my home is made of slate, complete with aquatic fossils, mined just 40 miles north of my residence. We have been experiencing rather big "Fracking" related earthquakes in the past two years. Pictured is my kitchen floor made of genuine Oklahoma slate and a couple of embedded marine fossils. One of the fossils is likely the remains of some sort of crab, the other is a two foot long curled spine of an unknown who knows what?