Driftwood question

[jerseybird97]

I've been searching for a nice large piece of driftwood for my 75gal. I went searching today in a lake by my house that I thought was fresh but must be brackish cause I found jelly fish in it. I did find a VERY nice piece. My question is can I treat it and use it? Also a secondary question is... the peice isn't mushy but it isn't exactly firm either is that cause it's water logged or because it's rotting?

 

[neilanh]

If you're going to use it, boil it for a while, or let it dry completely out and bake in the sun. The idea is to get all the living stuff off of it so you don't contaminate your tank.

See if you can ID what kind of wood it is. Softer woods can rot and foul your tank.

 

[jerseybird97]

I have no way of IDing it... I wouldn't know cedar from a toothpick lol

 

[jsoong]

I would brush away all soften wood with a wire brush & see if you have any firm wood in the middle. There isn't much point in putting a lot of work into a piece only to have it rot & fall apart.

You want to ID at least softwood vs hardwood. You can get a bit of a clue as to what the wood is by its surroundings. If the lake is surrounded by conifers, then it is likely the driftwood is softwood. If you see lots of sap pockets, it is a softwood (although well seasoned pieces won't have sap left). Any bark still attached can help in the ID. Finally, hardwood tend to be denser, but this is hard to tell in waterlogged pieces.

 

[mgamer20o0]

another thing to think about is if the place you get it from has any pollution. you wouldnt want to get any of that into the tank.