Driftwood Arrangement

[dskidmore]

Well, my shipment came in. I recieved one extra decent sized piece for paying promptly. I may regret trying to cure it all at once, it takes a decent amount of force to keep that much driftwood submerged, and most of the pieces are fairly light. It's all sitting in a large trash can in the basement now, with 5.5 cups of salt. I'll have to let it sit a good long while to see how much of it will sink. While handling the pieces, it seemed that some were heavier than others, I'm hoping some will sink quickly, if not, the first few pieces will be partially burried in the sand.

 

[dskidmore]

Arg! Still not sinking!

I went to the hardware store last night and got a box of slate 12x12 tiles. I need some epoxy to adhere them with...

Will silicone work for this purpose? I already have that in the house.

I'm going to stir up quite a cloud when I try to bury those slate pieces, not looking forward to it. My sand has gotten more tame over time, and the polyester batting I put in my filter seems to do the trick, but it's still quite dusty when disturbed. I will probably dig up all the plants and re-scape everything at once while I'm at it.

 

[GlitcH]

Arg! Still not sinking!

I went to the hardware store last night and got a box of slate 12x12 tiles. I need some epoxy to adhere them with...

Will silicone work for this purpose? I already have that in the house

Yep........it cures in 24 hours too.
I just finished siliconing lots of lavarock to form up the back of my 92g.
It worked great....I even used it to secure some driftwood to the tank wall that would have otherwise floated.

I still have soooo much driftwood left over.........I, like you, am hoping that the LFS will buy some off me.

 

[newfound77951]

Here's a tip if losing auctions on Ebay has you frustrated....go to www.auctionsniper.com and read about it. It seems weird but it's legal, and it lets you just enter your max bid and forget about it. I won my 55 gal tank and stand that way.

I hear ya about the "buy it now" stuff, though, it's a pain to figure out what to bid on...

 

[dskidmore]

Here's a tip if losing auctions on Ebay has you frustrated....go to www.auctionsniper.com and read about it. It seems weird but it's legal, and it lets you just enter your max bid and forget about it. I won my 55 gal tank and stand that way.

Someone like you took my favorite piece. I don't think I'll try that, it's a "do unto others as you would have them do unto you" sort of thing. If you really don't want to be sniped on a particular piece, you can use the Ebay autobid option, then the sniper has to go above your limit to get it.

 

[dskidmore]

FYI:

Boiling seems much more effective than the saltwater soak was. After a one month saltwater soak, maybe 10% of the driftwood sank. After boiling, about 75% sinks.

 

[dskidmore]

My schedule is still too full to get around to aquascaping this, but have a look at my jungle as it stands:

 

[newfound77951]

Looks great! I like the natural "log pile" look.....I always see piles of driftwood out kayaking and think "how can I get my tank to look like that??".

Is the piece in the top front still floating? It kinda blocks the view to the right hand side. Otherwise everything looks good, and has tons of potential for when you get time to 'scape it.

 

[rich311k]

Tank looks great. I am a big fan of the jungle look.

 

[czcz]

Very natural. Peaceful.

 

[dskidmore]

Yeah, there are two pieces still floating. I am going to try reboiling them when we get a cool day. One of the floating pieces is one of the extras I picked up outside the lot of 40, so I don't want to give up on it quite yet. I still have about 1/3 of the driftwood in a can in the basement, I may do some substituting when I get around to scaping.

 

[dskidmore]

I'm so non-artistic. I think it looked better before I tried to do anything...

 

[Glenc]

Tank looks great, very natural.

 

[rich311k]

I like it. The tank looks great I like the sunken tree effect you created.

 

[czcz]

I like it too. It is easy to imagine stem plants in the gap right center and Anubias or Bolbitis sp. on the horizontal wood and stuff in the stump, Travis style.

 

[DarylF2]

I think it looks terrific too, and I'm sure your fish will love all the hinding spots and fun spots to chase each other through! Great job!

 

[dskidmore]

I think it looks terrific too, and I'm sure your fish will love all the hinding spots and fun spots to chase each other through! Great job!

Yeah, the major point of this iteration was to open up the origional driftwood pile so I could see the shrimp running around in there. The previous pile was so dense, the fish would swim in and have to really wriggle to get back out.

There isn't much planting space left now though. I could put some crypts and other shade lovers in the driftwood cave area, but all my high-light areas are behind the driftwood where you can't see.

 

[plecoperson]

I think it looked fantastic both "before" and "after"; your fish are loving you!

 

[wobbles]

I really like the lastest look. Beautiful

 

[fish_4_all]

After is much more natural and functional. Much better than the first one. Do you have recent pics?