Dirted tank start question--wood

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Pezalfonso

Aquarium Advice Newbie
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May 23, 2016
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I've started to build my 55 gal dirted tank. But I want to use as much from nature as possible. I'm using the miracle grow organic soil and will cap with sand. Is that play box sand that one can buy at Walmart fine to use? My main question is how to prep/ clean and cure wood that I have sourced from mother nature. The spider wood and other aquarium ready wood and roots at the LFS are ridiculous in price. So, I found my own old roots systems and some drift wood from a river basin. I've seen folks boiling the wood for 2 hours but mine are too long to fit in the pot lol and I don't want to spend 8 hours boiling a few sections at a time in total. Is there another way to kill off the bacteria to cure naturally found wood? What about baking it in the oven? Or bleaching it in water and bleach solution as one does with LR to kill it off. Thanks
 
I have used wood from nature and I scrubbed them with a water vinegar solution. Put in the sun and soaked for a long time also.

Consider the site where you found the item you want to use.

We had floods and all kinds of diesel and gas and chemicals from farms and homes washed into the river and flooded over the area and I decided not to source items from the river after it went back down to normal level and there were lots of things to search through like DW. Darn.

Stones are another story and if they aren't a porous material like sand stone, I wouldn't worry as much. Clean with baking soda and vinegar (fun to do) ;)

I usually test the items out after cleaning as well and use a cull shrimp or fish in with the item and see if they survive for a couple - few weeks, you could use a plastic tote / tub item since your DW is big.
 
Pool filter sand is better IMO then play sand. It's more of a white color and easier to clean. Easier to find without any chems in it also.


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Sand blasting sand is even more clean, comes in lots of colors and varieties. Like real stone Garnet too from pink purple to orange russet. $17-25 per 40-50 lbs.
 
Farm and ranch supply store or if you are in a larger town / city there are sandblasting supply stores.

Especially large cities have nice one like this one in our metro area
Home

The are pretty limited types and grit sizes available at the big box home supply stores and places like ace hardware. You can check if there are painting supplier stores too.

There is Black Beauty abrasives which is coal slag in uniform sized for sand blasting people use it all the time because it is black. I understand it is good but maybe not so much for Cories or other sand sifting fish.
 
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If your drift wood is too large for a pot u can put it in the dishwasher with no soaps and run in for the longest and hottest cycle. Worked for me :)


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If your drift wood is too large for a pot u can put it in the dishwasher with no soaps and run in for the longest and hottest cycle. Worked for me :)

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Caution!!!

Make sure you don't have any "rinse aid" (has different commercial names) in there. Usually you hardly ever think about that stuff, but it could be in there and I imagine not ideal for a fish tank.
 
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