Driftwood

[puffergun]

I was thinking about adding driftwood to my tank and i have two f8 puffers, do they need it? or even if they don't need it do they like it? And do these cute little fish like bubble machines and if so how many should i get for a 50 gallon? Thank ya kindly

[bosshogg]

When you move them to brackish the wood can rot.

[cobra1713]

i have a piece in my GSP tank it's at 1.006 right now and it seems to be doing fine, im gonna take it out as soon as i see signs of it rotting but if your keeping them on the low side of brakish i think the wood would be fine, and im sure they would like it, it would give them another thing to check out and look at all day.

as far as bubble wands yea they wouldnt mind them, the water needs some oxygen, theres a few ways to get it tho, first would be just if the filters make some bubbles, second a bubble stone, but third is do you have blants? cus if so your not gonna want to add any bubble stones. because the plants need as much CO2 as they can get and if your adding extra oxygen to the water it is taking away from their supply of CO2 which would kill the plants, but in return the plants turn the CO2 into O2 for the fish, so if you have plants no stones but you still get the oxygen you need.

[PufferGrrl]

I have a bubble disk under my substrate in my F8 tank, he doesn't mind it. He doesn't swim into it, but I suppose I wouldn't expect him to. It keeps the water moving so the oxygen can dissolve into the water. The filter would probably be enough, but it also makes the tank look nice and keeps the water moving a little more.

[PuffnStuff]

I have a driftwood piece in my GSP tank and it's got some little white fuzz on it, is that signs of rotting?

[jimi]

white fuzz doesn't sound natural for wood and sorry to change topic but the woods hear my house a tree was taken down in a recent storm and all its roots and stuff are exposed ( it being on its side and all) and i was wondering if i could treat it myself or if i should beg my lfs to treat it so it can go in my tank ( this one root looks so cool its not funny it was made for my community tank)

[cobra1713]

well it is always a risk jimi, but if you were going to treat it i think you have to treat it in a brine solution for a month or so then water log it by weighting it down some how underwater (prob in a new rubber trashcan) then i would boil it. let me see if i can find a article on how to treat driftwood. or even if it can be done.

[jimi]

well someone knows how to do it someone has to knwo how to do it or else people are spending an extra 5 bucks a pound for something with just a word in front of it

[cobra1713]

"The pieces that were small enough, I boiled, for 1+ hrs. in extremely strong brine. fallowed in soaking in fresh water ( changing from time to time ) until the salt was gone. The pieces that were not small enough, I just soaked in extremely strong brine, for several days, fallowed by the same kind of fresh water changing to leach out the salt. Sometimes I will soak in a bleach solution, fallowed by air drying until it is dry all the way through and no longer smells of chlorine."

ok that was posted for getting it readyto put in a terarium, so i think the same would apply for an aquarium except the last step of letting it dry because you want to water log it, you have to boil it, if you have a pot big enough fit it in. or soak it in an extreamly conentrated brine solution for a few days to kill any bacteria. then maybe even a bleach solution which would be ten parts water to one part bleach and then make sure to rinse very well. and then weigh it down under water for a few weeks changing out the water every 3 or 4 days just to keep it fresh and then either weigh it down in your aquarium if your impacient and know its clean or wait for it to become waterlogged, which could take months if it is very large.

[CoreyK]

White fuzz just sounds like fungus growth. That can be a very natural thing for wood (not necessarily good to let it grow in an aquarium though).

Personally I think the whole "driftwood will rot" thing in brackish water is overrated.

[Nick]

I think it needs to be aged like firewood to dry out for a couple years before it can be boiled and used...

[PuffnStuff]

Cool, I never heard of the wood rotting in brackish before, but my other piece of driftwood (was in freshwater tank for 6 years) isn't rotting in my brackish. I clean the white fuzz off every week, hopefully it won't come back this time...

I would be very careful about trying to home prepare wood for any of my aquariums, see if you can research what the commercial treatment process is. Although I'm all for DIY

[Content2Swell]

"...Sometimes I will soak in a bleach solution, fallowed by air drying until it is dry all the way through and no longer smells of chlorine."
...so i think the same would apply for an aquarium except the last step of letting it dry because you want to water log it,...

If you use bleach, you will have to let it thoroughly dry before water logging it again. It is practically the only way to be sure you got rid of ALL of the chemicals.

[bazil323]

I read that driftwood really doesn't rot that quickly in brackish water. Especially in higher salinity water. That's because the salt prevents the bacterial and microbial action from taking place. It will still rot eventually, but it will take longer.

Also, I have two pieces of wood in my F8 tank, grape vine and mopani wood. The mopani is excellent because it just sinks right away. Both did get a whitish "fuzz" which I scraped off at every water change. Eventually I guess it will stop doing that. Also my F8 loves to swim under them. They both are propped up so that the ends touch the bottom but there is a space where it's like a cave. He loves it!

The bubble curtain is great too. My F8 likes to "ride" the bubbles. He will swim into the middle and let it float him up. Sometimes he swims back and forth through the curtain.

[Nick]

How quickly it will stop fuzzing over depends on how it was prepared. Wood that is dry aged extensively or kiln-dried to decay organics will stop very quickly, as mostly cellulose is left. Woods not prepared in this way will often fungus over for many months or years.