which is ok?

[TaTeR ToT]

i want to go looking for pieces of driftwood around my place or maybe around a local river.

my ? is -

how do i know what pieces of wood are safe to be used in my aquarium?

i will clean them in a tub of water and vinager solution, but need to know what kind of wood to look for.

[FuzzyDragon09]

You know I have also always wondered about this. Especially since wood off the ground would be free. I don't want to steal the thread but if someone could also answer these few questions too that would be cool. If not I can ask in another thread.
1. Can you use any dead wood that fell off a tree or does it have to be driftwood?
2. Would you have to strip the bark off to use it?
3. I heard red cedar does something bad to the water is this true?

[PlanB]

You can use found wood with certain conditions. It has to be a reasonable hard wood (oak, maple, ash, elm, hickory etc) and not soft sappy wood like pine, spruce, you know Christmas tree stuff etc. If you can easily press into it with your fingernail when the wood is dry, than it's soft wood.

I don't know if scrubbing with vinegar will be enough to kill potential germs and parasites. I would either use a light concentration of pure unscented bleach and water, than soak it in decholorinator for a couple days with water changes or just boil it it in a large pot. Boiling would probably be more fish safe and would have the added benefit of pushing out air from the wood and helping it to sink faster. You could also bake it in your oven at 200 degrees for a couple hours to kill germs and parasites, but really, that's kind of dangerous and should only be done with a very watchful eye. Afterwards soak it in a large tub to leech out the extra tannins. May take a couple days with water changes. Soaking and water changes will also hopefully remove any contaminants.

Bark might be a little too rough for fish and if they get excited and start darting around your tank, they could injure themselves. You really don't want rough wood if you have plecos.

I've heard that cedar will leech oils that are poisonous to fish. Don't know if it's true, but I'm not going to try it.

[eklikewhoa]

There are some that will leach sap and stuff that would be not good. Also you have to worry about what the driftwood has soaked up in the time it has been sitting out.

[liljack]

Cope has,in one of his many tanks, some sort of drift wood that gave the water a light tea color when he showed me ,it look s kinda cool and depending which room its in kinda....more calmer..if that makes sense.......anyway I have a friend that goes camoing all over the country and he is going to be bringing wood/rocks back from everywhere,,when there here Ill put a note up if ya`ll are interested. Told him big/small and especially weird and tag where they came from-should be interesting i think

[FuzzyDragon09]

Thanks for the help!

I have a friend that goes camoing all over the country and he is going to be bringing wood/rocks back from everywhere,,when there here Ill put a note up if ya`ll are interested. Told him big/small and especially weird and tag where they came from-should be interesting i think

That sounds like a great idea. I should look for stuff the next time I'm on vacation somewhere. I can't speak for Eartheater but I think I'm just going looking around for stuff myself. My tanks are really small. Also one of the reasons I haven't bought any wood is because the pieces are usually so big. If Eartheater isn't interested, post it in the Fish Market. For sure other people will probably want to see your collection.