SSSWWWWWWWWWEEEEETTTTT!!!!!!!!!

[DARK Jak]

today i went to my grandpas house and found this huge peice of driftwood in his yard he told me he found it in a lake 50!! years ago. its almost to big for my fishtank but i think it will fit. also it has been in his yard for all that time geting rained on so do you think it will be alright to put in or might it have a bad side effect on the water.

 

[krap101]

thats great!!

 

[QTOFFER]

Antique driftwood - what a great find! From the pic, I'd guess it's about 36 inches?

It looks remarkably clean, but since it's been in the yard, you'll want to soak it for a day or so in a solution of 1 part unscented household bleach to 9 parts water. This will kill any fungi or bacteria that may be growing on it. Then, you'll want to rinse it silly to remove the bleach. Personally, I'd do this outside in a kiddie pool with the garden hose - exposure to sunlight will quicken the removal of the bleach. Rinse until you can't smell the bleach on the wood any more - then rinse a few more times just to be sure. For the final rinse, dump in a bottle of dechlorinator to inactivate any remaining trace amounts of bleach.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Wow, very cool 8)

 

[ace1uno_00]

Just hose it down and toss it in the tank. Can you post pics when its in your tank?
Thats a nice peice of drift wood.

 

[revhtree]

I little off topic here but I was wondering something. I see you all talking about driftwood all the time. I live minutes from The Tennessee river. Is it leagal to take the driftwood? Also is that where it comes from? LOL!!

 

[ace1uno_00]

Hmmm i dont know revhtree.
Drift wood does come from rivers though.

 

[DARK Jak]

I think its illegal but I also (were do you think most LFS get thier driftwood LOL.

 

[DARK Jak]

ace1uno_00 it wont be too long befor its in the tank (wich im still setting up) this weekend I said HECK WITH IT and I devoted 100% of my time to building that paludarium that ive been talking about forever. and suprisingly Im almost done. I went to http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/46g_construct.htm
to get my ideas however i did not do his filtration idea IMO that could be very bad in the future as in what if the pump breaks hhhhhmmmmm

 

[madasafish]

You'll want to make sure it still sinks, of course... Driftwood has a nasty tendency to float a lot of the time unless it comes from a few particularly dense types of trees, or has been soaking consistently for a long time.

If it doesn't sink, you can always try to screw slate into the bottom of it (using slate screws). This also sometimes doesn't work. I bought a piece 2 months ago that still hasn't sunk. Grr....

 

[DARK Jak]

i herd that it would be fine because it was in a lake for so long before. :?

 

[madasafish]

If it was in the lake for a long time, it may be ok. But when wood dries back out, a piece that previously sank, often does not sink again for a while.

Best of luck!