# Sterilizing/sanitizing neglected driftwood



## rusticitas (Mar 10, 2004)

I had several small, but nice, pieces of driftwood I had had in a filled tub with a couple of mosses and floaters. I had completely forgotten about it, neglected it, for an unknown period of time, perhaps a couple of months. When I looked today it was completely disgusting. a dense growth of some kind of mold over the top of all the dead plants and stagnant water. It was pretty gross. I dumped the water and the dead matter. I have rinsed off and soaked the driftwood in a 5g bucket with warm water.

How do I sterilize, or sanitize, the driftwood so I can safely use it in a tank? I have thought about bleach, but my instinct tells me that even if used very weak it will just soak into the wood, being it porous. And I would have no idea how long it would take, if ever, to leach out.

Any ideas?


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

I boil mine. I use a huge pot and boil it for a little while, 5 minutes maybe. If I can't fit the entire piece in the pot, I will do sections at a time. That should pretty much sterilize it, also helps in getting some tannins out and make it sink quicker. HTH.


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## rusticitas (Mar 10, 2004)

Bert,

Thanks for the advice, I will try that! I can't believe I let it get that way in the first place...


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## Gomer (Feb 2, 2004)

you can nuke the wood with Hydrogen peroxide...should kill everything if you get it strong enough. the plus is, it won't breakdown the wood like boiling, and will self neutralize in just sunlight. the minus is that it is a surface treatment, unlike boiling which an penetrate some.


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