tsonnenl
Aquarium Advice Regular
Hi-
I'm still in the process of cycling my tank, and surprisingly enough that is not where my problem is. After making the mistake of not boiling my driftwood bought at the LFS, I have a tank of iced tea. While the filter sorts that out, I have been pouring boiling water over the wood every day into a 5gal bucket for about two weeks, and tonight I finally found a pot large enough to actually continuously boil it in. Man does that turn the water brown. That part should be fine eventually, but it is so tedious.
My real concern is how brittle the wood seems to be. I know that some driftwood is softer than others in the first place, but I'm worried that it is too soft and either already is rotted or will quickly rot in the tank, especially if I continue to boil it and possibly weaken it further. It doesn't 'look' rotted, but it definitely flakes off more than I would like. I don't particularly like the look of the african wood or other rooty woods, but I'm beginning to regret that. I think my paranoia is stemming mostly from this article http://www.floridadriftwood.com/aquarium_driftwood.htm that even recommends against boiling, which seems to be the standard practice. My LFS is one of the best I have ever seen, and I would be surprised if they sold me junk. What do you think?
If the consensus is that I should trash this wood and get new pieces, are there any places in particular that people have had success buying stumpy looking driftwood from?
Thanks in advance.
Todd
I'm still in the process of cycling my tank, and surprisingly enough that is not where my problem is. After making the mistake of not boiling my driftwood bought at the LFS, I have a tank of iced tea. While the filter sorts that out, I have been pouring boiling water over the wood every day into a 5gal bucket for about two weeks, and tonight I finally found a pot large enough to actually continuously boil it in. Man does that turn the water brown. That part should be fine eventually, but it is so tedious.
My real concern is how brittle the wood seems to be. I know that some driftwood is softer than others in the first place, but I'm worried that it is too soft and either already is rotted or will quickly rot in the tank, especially if I continue to boil it and possibly weaken it further. It doesn't 'look' rotted, but it definitely flakes off more than I would like. I don't particularly like the look of the african wood or other rooty woods, but I'm beginning to regret that. I think my paranoia is stemming mostly from this article http://www.floridadriftwood.com/aquarium_driftwood.htm that even recommends against boiling, which seems to be the standard practice. My LFS is one of the best I have ever seen, and I would be surprised if they sold me junk. What do you think?
If the consensus is that I should trash this wood and get new pieces, are there any places in particular that people have had success buying stumpy looking driftwood from?
Thanks in advance.
Todd