Driftwood: The e-bay trap?

[fish_4_all]

Find out if it is pertrified wood. If it isn't it should be fine. I wouldn't use pertrified wood because some of the stuff we find here in Vantage Washington from the Ginko Forest is actually poisonous. I would think there would be a lot of hard minerals if it is pertrified. Might be able to seal it and make it safe. Then again I could be wrong and pertrified wood could be completely safe.

Wouldn't be the first time I was wrong, just ask my wife!

 

[sudz]

i don't believe it is petrified wood. I think its on its way though. (couple hundred more years)

I'm going to boil it for a good 8 hours before i stick it in my tank. I think i may pressure wash it, but i don't want to take the "character" out of it. Heck, petrified wood is a collectors, even if it IS, i'll keep it and/or sell it

 

[Toirtis]

No worries....zero chance that it is petrified....but the suggestion that it is nearly heavy enough to seem so is a great indicator that it should be stable in your tank and sink immediately.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=8103&N=2004+113714

 

[sudz]

*cries* I was outbid with only minutes left.. i was in the car!

Now the search begins again!

I need to actually SEE the piece of driftwood i'm buying... If anyone knows of a great place to pick individual driftwood up, let me know! (or if anyone is will ing to sell them here, PM me!

 

[fish_4_all]

I will look around and see what I can find. Not many places to look but I will be going fishing on the upper rivers and when I do I will look for what I can find. If you tell me what shape, general size and some other details I won't have to carry a campfire with me everytime.

In the mean time, can anyone give me an idea of what to look for? I have seen a lot of salt water driftwood so I know what that looks like. Does fresh water driftwood look the same?

 

[Lonewolfblue]

All depends where you get it. Some are darker than others. I got some Malaysian driftwood and a piece of African driftwood, I like how they look. One of the malaysian pieces looks like a wishbone, and I use it to disguise my filter intake, and have java moss on it. Looks cool. Then under the wishbone, is a fake hollow log I got from petco. That's the rainbow sharks layer.

 

[Lonewolfblue]

You still have to soak the malaysian and african driftwood, but they are heavy and sink in the bucket. They don't initially float. That's the best part. And when you place in the tank, don't need to weight them down til they are waterlogged. They just sink.

 

[sudz]

Basically something very knarly. The more bizzare looking the better, I want to find something with crevaces (sp?) so i can plant plants in it. Its basically has to fit in a 23X23 triangle. the taller (over 12 inches) the better. I can always trim it and sand it down if i find its too big. This will be the centrepiece. I'm still going to look around, and my parents are going up to the cottage next weekend. i may go with them to go exploring. Though sticking my hand in the lake won't be fun, it'll well be worth it. Should i go to the swamy area's? or the clean area at the end of the lake were typical driftwood washes up?

 

[sudz]

Ok, I've bid on something on aquabid. I like it alot, and its already been in a tank for 2 years... So i'll scrub and boil it for a few hours then be able to throw it in mine

http://www.aquabid.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.cgi?decorations&1130182141

Looks pretty good! I think i'll put it vertical, it'll give it a big of a cave for my frog/loach and it'll add depth to the tank!

your thoughts?
Only one hour left on the auction! W00t W00t!

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Nice piece......

 

[Zezmo]

That is a nice piece. If you end up not getting it you might look into some Mopani Wood (African Hardwood, can be found as rootwood). This stuff is dark, and stays dark even after it has stopped leaching noticeable tannins into the water.

The tank at the top of this page has a large piece in it: http://www.aquatouch.com/FW Planting.htm

You will find lots of good texture and crevices. I have 4 different pieces. THe largest, I planted 2 Amazon swords in the largest crevice, and elsewhere on it I have Anubis Nana, Java Fern, Java Lace Fern, and Java Moss. I recently tried to remove the swords, but their roots had grown so well into the crevices they are not going anywhere.

 

[sudz]

YES! i won it! WooooHOOOO!! 22 dollars shipping to get it in a week

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Cool.......

 

[rich311k]

Congrats

 

[caribou]

I would check Foster and Smith. They have great Malaysian drift wood and I have read that they will try and honor special requests, like very branchy, etc. I've gotten some really nice pieces from them, but did have to do some soaking to get rid of tannins.

 

[sudz]

I like the idea of this one because its already been in his tank for 2 years (or so he says) I'll just scrub it lightly, boil it for a few hours (i'm thinking 2 hours) and then be done with it and pop it in my tank.

GAH when is my heater going to come in! (bought of e-bay)
My tank should be here next thursday, with luck! T minus 7 days!

 

[Lonewolfblue]

Do you really need to boil it 2 hours? Would 10 minutes be fine, then change the water and boil another 10 minutes? I didn't boil mine at all, just soaked 2 weeks and all's well. But yours was already in a tank, so would 2 hours be overdoing it?

 

[sudz]

I don't know how he kept his tank. I basically want to heat the whole piece to the center to kill ANY bacteria thathe may have had that i didn't want.

I'm probably being over paranoid.... But you wouldn't put STORE water into your tank, would you?

Interesting news about Big AL's in brampton: Their ENTIRE freshwater section is one unit. They all are connected together. So when they need to medicate more than one group of fish (they do have ONE isolated tank) they have to medicate the entire store, practically.

They keep all their tanks at 80*f, except for their show tanks (which have more expensive/larger fish in it)

I don't like that at all.