Waterlogging driftwood for low TDS, low pH tank

[Totenkampf]

vinegar is muraitic acid and people dont trip the hell out when they see you dripping pickle juice on a rock quite like they do when you are running around with HCl. actually i use white vinegar.

i would think that any clay would leach minerals. ceramic is glazed so it wouldnt unless you got any kinda of a crack or chip, and you probably would eventually.

i had a huge piece of floaty cypress knees that i screwed down to a sheet of aluminum and i had no problems during the 10 years it was wet. i dont know if i recommend that though, i was pretty surprised that i had done that when i pulled it up lol.

[Totenkampf]

...oh and dump some vinegar on roys little velociraptor eggs...i wanna see them hatch

[LooksLater]

vinegar is muraitic acid and people dont trip the hell out when they see you dripping pickle juice on a rock quite like they do when you are running around with HCl. actually i use white vinegar.

i would think that any clay would leach minerals. ceramic is glazed so it wouldnt unless you got any kinda of a crack or chip, and you probably would eventually.

i had a huge piece of floaty cypress knees that i screwed down to a sheet of aluminum and i had no problems during the 10 years it was wet. i dont know if i recommend that though, i was pretty surprised that i had done that when i pulled it up lol.

I had read that about vinegar also, though it had mixed reviews...apparently, sometimes it isn't a strong enough acid to give reliable results. So they recommended diluted Hcl. Plus that sounds more fun. I get some goggles and can go all mad scientist!

I wondered that about ceramics and clay, but thought I would ask...

Aluminum, eh? No, I don't think I would try that for skrimps. But- if you're priming the water based on total volume, and the pH isn't very soft, and you're not dealing with puffers/shrimps or anything super-sensitive, it probably won't hurt anything, I'm guessing. Same with iron/rust, it doesn't seem to hurt much until the ppm is pretty damn high.

[LooksLater]

...oh and dump some vinegar on roys little velociraptor eggs...i wanna see them hatch

Ooh, good idea....I wanna see that, too!!!! I need a lab coat, along with my hydrochloric acid and goggles.

Mwah hahahahahhhaaaa!

[LooksLater]

Oh, and for general FYI: looking through rock properties, I think I've found the reason we have that brown/golden diatom problem in our tang tank- silicates. That big rock in the back is probably leaching silicates, thus no amount of purigen, W/C, or mech filtering is helping...it's free lunch all day, everyday for the diatoms.

Hey, the more you know! *cue rainbow*

[Fancyfish]

Yes, but the question there was, will the slate leach off and raise my TDS?

I believe slate is pretty inert. The reason you use stainless steel screws is because they don't rust. If you are not in a rush, just leaving it in the tank or a buckett of water for a long time may do the trick.

[black_knight]

If your ok with commiting to the placement of the driftwood, I've siliconed smaller pieces to the tank itself for low TDS set ups. Donot try with larger pieces, they can crack your tank when they they try to float up. You could also take a clay pot and silicone it to the bottom of it and then fill with inert aquarium gravel (not always the most asthetic way).

[troy tucker]

It takes time to get driftwood to sink. I had a pease took 3 months to sink. took it out to put in the tank I want it in and the thing wont sink. What a deferents a day makes. good luck with the drift wood. I know time will take care of it...

[LooksLater]

Thanks, all. black_knight, that's a great idea...I wish I'd thought of that before I filled the tank! But I'll keep that in mind for future nano scapes.

I know time is the best remedy, I'm just impatient! I finally got the fissidens and shrimp I've been wanting and I'd love to get it all where I want it and be done with it. I'm so excited to have my tree!

I will probably just pick up some stuff to be able to do accurate acid tests...I didn't realize how complicated rock composition is, looks like I have a lot to learn. We'll find some rock that is supposed to be inert, test it to be sure and tie a chunk to the bottom of the tree.

[ometh]

Try this. It always worked for me. Boil it for 3 days constantly after the three says throw it in a container with just regular water with table salt for about 5 days and it should work. Worked for me this way. The salt will help with impurities and dehydrate any organisms that are still in the wood after boiling. You'd be surprised, I still had bugs
Coming out of wood after boiling it so this is just another way to kill of any extra things. If the wood has rot just peal it off with a steel brush or by hand. If the wood hasn't sunk in the 5 days in the salt mix (I usually do small pieces so it only takes 5 days) just keep soaking it and changed the water out in the container after 5 days with new salt mix water. I've heard aquarium salt and Epsom salt mix works best but I'd figure I'd try table salt and it worked out fine.

[ometh]

I should mention when you throw it in the container put some slate or something l hold it down to sink it. Just an FYI

[LooksLater]

Try this. It always worked for me. Boil it for 3 days constantly after the three says throw it in a container with just regular water with table salt for about 5 days and it should work. Worked for me this way. The salt will help with impurities and dehydrate any organisms that are still in the wood after boiling. You'd be surprised, I still had bugs
Coming out of wood after boiling it so this is just another way to kill of any extra things. If the wood has rot just peal it off with a steel brush or by hand. If the wood hasn't sunk in the 5 days in the salt mix (I usually do small pieces so it only takes 5 days) just keep soaking it and changed the water out in the container after 5 days with new salt mix water. I've heard aquarium salt and Epsom salt mix works best but I'd figure I'd try table salt and it worked out fine.

I understand what you're saying. It sounds like that'd work well for wood in my tang (high pH) tank. But I'm trying to keep TDS low in this tank for the shrimp, I'm guessing the wood would be leaching off salts for quite awhile and that's the problem here. I was even boiling it in RO, just to avoid the minerals in our tap! Thanks, though.