Wood pieces for tank...
- Thread starter Niki86
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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Mebbid
Aquarium Advice Addict
Hard woods are best to use and I would avoid really sappy trees such as pine like the plague. The sap can leech and potentially turn your water into jello. What you're really looking for in driftwood that you scavenge is a well worn barkless piece that isn't rotting. Most of these pieces will be found along the banks of rivers as the wood doesn't rot as fast when it's in the water as opposed to on land. When you find a piece just give it a fingernail test - Press your fingernail into it and if it sinks in it's no good.
BBradbury
Aquarium Advice Addict
- Joined
- May 24, 2011
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- 5,011
Using Local Wood
Hello Nik...
You can use anything that's old and dry. Doubtful there's anything in an old piece that would hurt the tank water. Go hunting as long as there aren't laws against this type of activity. Go for the old stuff that's dry and rinse it well in some of your replacment tank water. You'll likely need some rocks to weigh the piece down in the tank. The local stuff looks much better than the store bought kind and the price is much better.
Happy hunting.
B
Hello Nik...
You can use anything that's old and dry. Doubtful there's anything in an old piece that would hurt the tank water. Go hunting as long as there aren't laws against this type of activity. Go for the old stuff that's dry and rinse it well in some of your replacment tank water. You'll likely need some rocks to weigh the piece down in the tank. The local stuff looks much better than the store bought kind and the price is much better.
Happy hunting.
B
That's kind of the answer I was expecting, where I live there's one large river that run through the city and I believe it is heavily polluted, I'm not positive but not sure I'd risk it in my tank.
How do you go about boiling large pieces? Or can you bake it in the oven? I may be getting ahead of myself here bc I haven't looked for any, and when I find some I'll post pics.
How do you go about boiling large pieces? Or can you bake it in the oven? I may be getting ahead of myself here bc I haven't looked for any, and when I find some I'll post pics.
Also how do you classify hardwoods? Is that the trees that loose their leaves ever year?(sorry maybe a stupid question, but I honestly don't know...the only one I can think of is oak, and I'm still not sure if that is a hardwood)
elephantnose
Aquarium Advice Addict
If it's hard to the press it hard wood if you press your finger in it and it caves it's soft wood. This is what I've heard.
Fishinfreak
Aquarium Advice Freak
Yes, i believe trees like oaks are hardwoods. Also, i believe birch are. As for every tree that looses leafs, im not sure if they are hardwoods or not
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treemanone2003
Aquarium Advice Addict
All hardwoods are deciduous (leaf dropping) trees with the exception of Larch trees. They are deciduous conifers. All conifers are softwoods. Some hardwoods are softer than softwoods and vice versa.
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