Driftwood Not Sinking...

[AquariumFreak]

Well I have had my driftwood soaking for almost 3 days now and it's still floating.

How do I get them to sink?

Thanks,

Jeff

 

[Guest]

I'm assuming you are soaking wood in a bucket or other container, not in the tank. You have to weigh down the driftwood, force it under, so the air trapped in the wood is forced out by water pressure. Boiling helps wood to sink much faster. I highly reccomend boiling to drive out the air.

If you don't force/weigh it down, it may never sink. I have a big piece of driftwood I collected from a lake 2 years ago. This wood is in my pond, I never weighed it down and it is still floating.

 

[savga]

A piece I bought never would sink. I finally got a piece of slate from Home Depot and some rust proof screws and screwed it to the slate. You can easily shape the slate with a hammer by chipping it and drill holes in it with a masonry bit. If that is still not enough weight, you can stack extra pieces of slate or even a diving weight where it will not show from the front.

 

[Swank]

I had a huge piece, and eventually I had to stack a bunch of granite tile pieces together and attach them all with silicone....it sure worked.

If you have a big piece, you'll probably need more weight than you think...

 

[malkore]

even on slate, I had a piece that didn't wanna sink even after 8 hours of boiling...one half was still boyant.
I just stacked extra slate on top, and that worked. It seems to have finally sunk on its own, after 3 months

 

[AquariumFreak]

Well I am having a hard time boiling the driftwood because I cant find a pot big enough. If I do find a pot big enough how long should I boil the wood?

Right now I have tried boiling the water and pouring it into a bucket with the wood submerged but it still doesn't seem to be working.

HELP

 

[Guest]

If I do find a pot big enough how long should I boil the wood?

Until it sinks! I wish I could do better than that, but some of my small pieces have taken 2 hours or less, others more like 10 hours.

Also, cannot speak for others, but boiling driftwood STINKS, IME! If you can do it outdoors (Gas grill, camp stove) you'll be more popular with your significant other. Also, When I've boiled mine, I weighed it down during boiling too, used a couple rocks. Please be safe doing any of this, don't burn or scald yourself, or burn the house down. Pay attention to it, because you will likely need to add more water a few times during a long boil.

 

[AquariumFreak]

Well after boiling 2 of the 4 pieces for over 3 hours they have finally sunk!!!

 

[Menagerie]

Wow!! What did you finally boil the wood in? I have two large (2 feet each) pieces of driftwood in my tank and can't find anything to boil them in. They are currently being weighed down with pieces of basalt in the tank

 

[AquariumFreak]

I was able to get 3 of the 4 pieces to sink by boiling them in a 34quart seafood pot, 4th piece I mounted but after putting it in the tank decided to leave it out.