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Drift wood


dr.piko

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Hey guys, I wanna add some drift wood to my aquarium but I have problem. I don't know how to fix it at the bottom. I have tried silicon but it doesn't work. I have noticed at pet stores they fix the drift wood to a red colored stone with screw and cover it with silicon . Does any body know from where I can get these safe stones?

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That stone is most likely slate, most LFS should carry them. Alternatively, others have used tiles with some success. 

 

 

+1 on Soothing's comment

 

Personally, what worked for me was patience. Depending on the size of the driftwood, I would find a container large enough to completely submerge it with the help of something heavy enough to weight it down. Eventually, the driftwood will be come waterlogged and naturally sink. Soaking will also help leach out tannins before you place it in your display tank. 

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I will add that not all wood will eventually sink but most the stuff commonly used in aquariums sinks after a week or so.  You can also weigh it down with a rock for a week or two until it does sink. 

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Agreed with the soaking. Do you know what kind of wood it is?

 

Also if you cant find slate at your LFS you could try a stoneyard. There's one near me that lets me dig through the piles out back for pieces I like. Then they just weigh them and charge me. Also, depending on the shape of the wood a cleverly placed stone on a branch can make the screw unnecessary. 

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I got some slate from aquatic criter . It was perfect. But the big piece keep floating :( and one of the pieces become black. I don't wanna add it to the aquarium. I think I will soak them for another 2 weeks. Any ideas , how to be sure it is safe to add them to the aquarium?

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If you can fit them into a pot you have, boil them.  It will not only kill most nasties making it aquarium safe.  Also, it will drive the air out of the interstitial spaces.  Let it cool in the water and the portions that were air filled should become filled with water = wood now sinks.  Just boil it until you don't see many bubbles coming out of the piece of wood.  Give it a shot.  Personally, I am one of those guys that drilled out a portion of one of my pieces of wood and filled it with molten lead => melted lead sinkers and dripped it into the hole I carved out on the bottom of it.  Two options for ya.

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If you can't find something big enough to put boiling water in you can just use room temp water it just takes longer.  It won't kill things off that are on the wood but anything boiling will kill shouldn't really hurt your tank anyways. 

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I had big pieces before that wouldn't fit in a pot.

Put them in a plastic tote, filled with boiling water, and put a big rock on it.

The whole thing was in my bathtub.

Every day I would drain and add hot water from the tap.

Took a week and a half.

Damn wood was cleaner than I.

 

I'm thinking hot water speeds it up, because driftwood from the same source was put in an outside kiddy pool, weighed down,

and after a month it was still a-floating.

 

-Stef*

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I have always bought heavy pieces and strictly Malaysian Driftwood . Never had any that did not sink most of them right away . Even Bamboo sinks in less than a week and its filled with pore spaces . I always avoided Boiling as I thought it took a lot of the tannins out of the wood . Also would you get the issue with organisms with the Malaysian ? Seems like in processing and sitting then shipping it should kill everything . Oh and did anyone else notice the Shrimp especially baby shrimp that congregate on and under it ? Seems like everything even plecos like that Malaysian stuff better . I must say though some other types are awesome to look at   :)

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  • 6 months later...

For large pieces of wood I fill up my  large cooler with hot water, throw the wood in and shut it. It stays hot in there, the tannins leak out, and usually the wood sinks pretty quickly.

Scott

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