# Driftwood wont sink!



## gina (May 29, 2004)

Hi, I recently brought a large piece of driftwood and I cant get it to sink!
It is 3 foot long and 6" - 10" deep in places. 
Its quite heavy when it is in the water so I cant get the substrate to hold it down. 
It has been in my tank for about a month now, I was hoping it would sink after being in the water for some time but no joy.
I have also tried the epoxy putty to try and stick it to the bottom and back of the tank and that didnt work.
The only thing holding it down is my stress bars which it is stuck under, and the wood is about 6" from the substrate and looks stupid!
What am I doing wrong!

p.s can any one ID my new plants? I think one is a crypto?!
Thanks very much, any help is appreciated.


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## Gomer (Feb 2, 2004)

You could always try and attach the wood to slate. It is commonly done.

here is an example









As far as those plants, I have bad news. While I can't positively identify all the plants, from left to right, plants 1,2,4 are DEFINATELY NOT aquatic plants. These are often used in terrariums. They will probably last a month or so before they downward spiral to mush.


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Gina, wood can take a long time to sink, especially large pieces as you have. One thing I do which will speed up sinking is to boil my wood. This also kills any nasties on it With a piece that size, I would take the biggest pot you can find and perhaps do one half then the other. 30 minutes per half. 
I agree with Gomer about the plants  . I don't think 3 is aquatic either.


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## Steve Pituch (Jan 25, 2004)

Hi Gina,

I think you got one or two land plants in there. I think the first, second and fourth from the left are probably non aquatic. The one without any roots may be a crypt. Float it in water for a while. Hopefully it will grow back roots.

Regards,
Steve Pituch


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## Jeffd17 (Jun 3, 2004)

*Try slate, it worked for me.*

Gina, what I did was go to my local lfs and bought one of those fake plants that are attached to slate. I removed the fake plants, kept the slate and screw and attached it to the bottom of the driftwood, (mine is malaysian driftwood, had to soak it for a couple of weeks), then I put it in bottom of the aquarium, put the substrate down, no problem. The weight of the substrate or gravel will keep it down. Good Luck!


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## aquaverde (Feb 9, 2004)

I have a piece of driftwood that still has positive bouyancy after a year. To sink it initially, I got some chunky (inch thick) pieces of black slate, drilled them, and attached to the bottom of the wood with stainless steel screws. At this point I have been able to remove one of the slate pieces, but not the other. As others have said, it can take a while for some types of wood to sink. This wood was bought through a Florida vendor online, and the wood is from Florida. I also had tremendous problems with fungus initially with this wood. Neither fungus nor bouyancy has been a problem with the African wood I have bought since. I will stick with that from now on for store-bought wood.


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## gina (May 29, 2004)

Thanks guys, I brought some slate and bolted it to the wood. It worked perfectly! and looks great.
Thanks also for the advice on my plants, newbies hey!


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## caribet (Jul 7, 2004)

Hi there. I am also new to this thing too but thought that I might share what I did to keep my driftwood from floating (at the time I didn't have any slate so I used what I had). I had a few suction cap things that stick to the glass hanging around so I attached these to the bottom of the tank and then used fishing line to tie the driftwood to the suction caps things. Worked really well for me and it meant that I didn't have to attached the wood to anything else. I was lucky in that after a month or so, the wood became completely saturated. Then I simply removed the ties.


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## Bluewater (Jun 27, 2004)

you may weight the wood down with stones.. may take more than a week..


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## little worm on a big hook (Mar 15, 2004)

plant 3 may be anubias congensis.


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## Corigan (Mar 15, 2004)

I've been having a heck of a time getting one piece of wood I have to sink. Over time I just started breaking down and buying malaysian driftwood. Atleast it sinks.. 

Matt


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## georgiadawgger (Jun 14, 2004)

little worm on a big hook said:


> plant 3 may be anubias congensis.


I think you're right on that...at least some sort of Anubias. Let that one root out onto your driftwood and it should be a nice look.

I actually did what Corigan has done and have been using "store" bought malasian or african driftwood. These sink naturally and I've never had tannins leach into my water. For the $15 I think its worth it to get good wood rather than a headache.


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## little worm on a big hook (Mar 15, 2004)

my thoughts were congensis or afzelli, but the stems are red and that occurs on the congensis, the afzelli stems are green. These plants look like they came from a PetCo/Petsmart. non aquatics with a nice anubias mixed in there!!!!


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