# Bleeching the driftwood



## john.shephard26

Hi I read somewhere that common bleach could be used treating driftwood against coloration of the water.Is this possible?


----------



## john.shephard26

Well?


----------



## Aquaticz

I think not


----------



## john.shephard26

Well do you know of a method?


----------



## 1077

Boiling the wood for an hour or two would help release tannins which stain the water but are harmless to fish.
In my mind ,bleach could be absorbed by wood and perhaps not easily evacuated.
Some say linguin's in wood would prevent deep saturation of bleach but would you not then have chlorinated linguin's ?
Seems this is similar to process of making paper from wood pulp, where they bleach the wood.
In any event ,I would not use bleach to clean wood with out of fear of not gettin it all out even with several soaking's in dechlorinated water afterward's.
Just my two cent's.


----------



## Michael

1077 has pointed out the problems with using bleach on wood. How can you be sure that you have neutralized any bleach absorbed by the wood? And after you soak and drain the bleached wood in dechlorinator several times, how do you know that the bleach helps more than the soaking and draining?

Soaking and boiling are the methods used by most people. The ultimate method may be patience and water changes.


----------



## asukawashere

Actually, household bleach (NaOCl) is a rather unstable molecule. Given exposure to air, light, etc, it breaks down very quickly into O2 (oxygen) and NaCl (table salt). That's why people who don't use dechlorinator in their water changes often leave the bucket of water out overnight - the tiny concentration of chlorine in municipal water is gone by morning. Or, for another comparison, think of pool water, which is chlorinated. You don't just put a gallon of bleach in a pool and leave it at that for the season, you have to constantly put more in because it breaks down quickly.

The issue with using bleach on driftwood isn't the possibility of bleach itself staying on/in the wood but rather that a) the leftover NaCl can raise the TDS of your water, which may be undesirable for a planted tank, and b) your wood will end up, well, bleached white(ish). White wood isn't attractive to most people... especially if it's done unevenly and you end up with blotchy wood.

If your plan is to use the wood in a high-pH or brackish tank, and you don't mind the look of it being whitened, then you could hypothetically bleach the wood. Just air it out in a well-ventilated place and let it dry _completely_ before putting it in a tank. I wouldn't try it in a low-TDS, plant-oriented tank for the aforementioned reasons, but it wouldn't be inherently toxic or anything once it was cured.

I use bleach to get algae off of really stubborn equipment/rocks/tanks sometimes. Similarly, I use CLR to get calcium and iron scale off of old tanks and whatnot (in that case, it's a strong acid blend that breaks down quickly with exposure). The trick is to rinse well, then leave it outside to air out for a couple days, after which point it's safe to use again.


----------



## Michael

Interesting, thanks for the correction.


----------



## john.shephard26

Thanks guys, this was very informative, I had doubts my self and I don't really wanna risk it so I'll stick to old fashioned method-patience


----------



## will5

Well I have bleached every every piece of drift wood I have ever had. Some I have let set in bleach water for a couple of days. The I rinse the heck out of it and put it back in a five gallon bucket filled with tap water and enough prime for a 30G aquarium to soak for a few days.

I have yet to have any problem at all.


----------



## fishcakes

Ive had a piece of driftwood that is still leaching tannin after 6 years submersed. I finally settled on a bag of 'Purigen' in my filter and all tannin problems solved.

Craig


----------



## vsci555

I also bleached the pieces of the wood i noticed that after the bleached tank is totally wash and no dust or any garbage is in the tank..Can any one show me the bleached wood in the pic?


----------

