Boiling drift wood

[cosmiccreepers]

Hi folks,

My brother brought me back some drift wood from his holiday on the north coast (actually i would have prefered the holiday )

Anyway i was wondering how long i have to boil it for. It was washed up on the beach so it's a bit sandy, but it was the salt that worried me.

Cheers, Cassandra

[OziOscar]

Give it a soak in some fresh water for a week or two. It will aid in leaching out the salt and tannins. If you change the water every couple of days that helps it along nicely.

Cheers - OziOscar.

[PHL]

And I wouldn't be too worried about the salt; I usually add some to my aquariums.

[dviv]

Soak it for a week or so in hot water, changing the water once it goes brown (every one to two days).

After a week or so, boil it for an hour or so, then soak it again to see how much brown is leeching out.

If it's still leeching badly.... start from the top

enjoy

[searlesy]

It will most likely float, which is a pain. I have soaked some in an outdoor tub for about a year, and it has only just sunk. Normally though, when I get driftwood from the beach, I just hose it for about 15 minutes and then stick it in the tank with a rock on top. The tanins leach out very quickly, but these shouldnt harm the inhabitants of the tank, but it is a good way of making me do water changes, when the water gets to dark to see the fish.

[PSi4EVA]

Hi Cassandra,

I found the best way for me was to just use the hot water straight out of the tap. An esky comes in real handy if you have one laying around.

Take your wood and esky and head to the bathroom. Check with the "authority" of the household first

Fill it with the hot water and seal it and leave it over night. The next evening empty that water which should be nice and brown, tannins, etc. And re-fill with hot water. Do that every night for approx 1 - 2 weeks, depending on the state of the wood. When your ready to put it back in the tank, run it under the cold water and maybe get a scrubbing brush to take off some of the waste material. The tannins will leach quite readily in the hot water, but when you put it back into the aquarium which is significatly cooler then the hot tap water, plus the addition of carbon filtration, you shouldn't have a problem with tannins what so ever. If you do have one, just continue the reigm of fill - empty - fill. A month tops should be all that is needed.

The waste water does put off a little bit of a smell, but that clears up and you may have to scrub some of the brown residue out of the esky. It all comes off thankfully. :lol:

Cheers,

Scott

[hieuc]

has anyone ever tried bleaching the wood??? its gives a really nice worn of and old look. i heard that if u soak it in bleach then let it air dries all the bleach disintergrates, but havent treid it yet? anyone done this before and care to share their experience??

[PHL]

has anyone ever tried bleaching the wood??? its gives a really nice worn of and old look. i heard that if u soak it in bleach then let it air dries all the bleach disintergrates, but havent treid it yet? anyone done this before and care to share their experience??

I bleach all of mine before use in hot water, usually at least overnight. The I soak it in chlorine neutraliser at 4x normal strength overnight, repeat, then normal hot water. Seems to reduce the tanin, and so far so good.

[Other Ed]

I got some wood the other day that had been burnt. After heaps of scrubbing and gouging at the charcoal most of it is gone. If there is some left will it harm the fish? It still has that burnt smell to it.

TIA

Ed.