Brittle Driftwood

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tsonnenl

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
May 6, 2003
Messages
60
Location
Columbia, MD
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
 
Alright, the post was long...I'll give you that. But at least one of the 15 of you that looked at this post had to have made it to the end and had an opinion. Has everyone always been happy with driftwood?

Shot in the dark-> Has anyone bought this driftwood from the Aquarium Center in Randallstown, MD before?
 
Hi tsonnenl,

You wrote;
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.
Do you pour boiling water on it every day and then pour the water off?
or Do you leave it soaking in that water overnight and then dump the water out and replace it with more boiling water?

I have many pieces of driftwood in my tanks. I soaked them continuously prior to putting them into my tanks and every single piece tinted the water for several weeks. I never boiled the water, I just replaced the water daily or when it started looking like Iced Tea.

I have tons of patience when it comes to my tanks, I never care how long some of the processes take. (but that's just my nature).

IMHO nothing compares to a natural-looking tank, real plants, real rocks, real driftwood. (I'm not knocking ceramic castles and bubbling treasure chests or scuba divers, if you like them that is great but they are not for me.)
 
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