Branching Driftwood

[bballsosh]

I would really like to get a nice big piece of brachy driftwood that will be the center piece of my 54 gallon soon to be planted tank. Does anybody know where i can find something like this?

 

[newfound77951]

Try online....I found a number of online retailers plus many on eBay....beware, though, that driftwood can be pricey! And also make sure that the piece in question will actually fit in your tank (most sellers will list dimensions), and also either sinks on its own or has a piece of slate attached. Online was the best place I found for nice driftwood....most LFS dont have much selection other than those weird holey pieces attached to slate.

 

[Jman17H]

I lot of people would probably recommend against this but I have never bought a piece of driftwood.

I simply search for something I think is cool looking along a stream or lake and bring it home and do my own process which consists of simply of scrubbing and then running it through multiple full cycles in the dishwasher making sure it is not on energy save and is as hot as it possibly can be and goes through both wash and dry cycles. I have never had any leaching of tannins and no bad diseases.

Wives and people with germ fears may not find this cool though?

 

[newfound77951]

No, that's a good option too. I have a large piece of driftwood in my tank now that I got out of a lake in NH. beach wood is fine too. The wood should be thoroughly cleaned and boiled if possible. The dishwasher idea is a good one that I had not heard of, although I'm hoping you did it without detergent! Do be aware of any wood that might have been treated (ie old pilings usually have creosote) and also try to avoid resiny wood like pine and spruce, although if thoroughly dry they should be OK.

 

[Jman17H]

Definetly no detergent. Just make sure it goes through at least 3-4 times. I had to take out all racks the last time I washed a peice. That was not fun my much easier and took a lot less patience.

If you want to figure how to get them to sink? That I have not perfected. Granite comes in handy for that!

In my opinion the hard part is not cleaning the driftwood but finding something that you actually like. I thought about searching a lowered lake while I was home for christmas but did not want the aggrivation of finding nothing I deemed completely perfect and it often seems that the coolest pieces I see are way to big anyways........