# Driftwood question



## juan5pronto (Mar 17, 2007)

Whats the best way to clean driftwwood? I don't suppose thar it would be wise to soak it in diluted bleach water


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## cs_gardener (Apr 28, 2006)

If it's small enough you can boil it. For larger pieces I collected myself I scrubbed them with a stiff brush and then soaked them in the hottest water I could get to fill a large container I had them in. I let the water cool naturally, drained it and repeated a couple times. I then let the wood soak until it sank on it's own. So far, no problems.


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## Jman17H (Nov 9, 2006)

If small enough to put in dishwasher. Run it through 2-3 cycles (obviously with not soap) on high heat. It will not sink it but will clean it very well of all loose particles, anything living in it and get rid of all tannins!


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## HTN86 (Nov 2, 2007)

I usually put it in a pot of water then boil it. When the water starts to boil, I turn off the heat (waste of gas if you leave it on) then let it sit untill the water cools. Water can carry heat for a long period of time so don't worry about not letting the heat reaching the inside. Then change the water and repeat untill you see no more tannin. GL


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## jmhart (Nov 13, 2007)

Jman17H said:


> If small enough to put in dishwasher. Run it through 2-3 cycles (obviously with not soap) on high heat. It will not sink it but will clean it very well of all loose particles, anything living in it and get rid of all tannins!


If there is a woman of the house(Wife, Mother) you better speak to her before you even think about doing this.

I'm not kidding at all.

I have a separate 8 qt pot for all of my fish stuff. One time, one time only, I used our other 8 qt pot to boil wood and my fiancee saw me.....that was a bad day.


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## tcfish (Nov 4, 2007)

I tie a brick around mine and sink it in my pool then after a few days sink it in a clean garbage can with chlorine remover for a couple days,this is all done after I power wash all the stuff off.


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## Zapins (Jul 28, 2004)

jmhart oh man me too, except my mother made me scrub the residues off the pot for hours :*(


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## kwc1974 (Jan 4, 2006)

If it something I collect out of a water source, I put it in a quarentene tank (or plastic tub) for a few weeks and crank the heater temp as high as I can. If a notice anything, I will treat just like I would for fish.

If the wood comes from a Dry source, I just waterlog it and do not worry about disinfecting at all.


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## Amazon_Replica (Nov 24, 2007)

jmhart said:


> I have a separate 8 qt pot for all of my fish stuff. One time, one time only, I used our other 8 qt pot to boil wood and my fiancee saw me.....that was a bad day.


LMAO, I feel your pain.

On the topic tho, I have a large centerpiece that i found in an old apartment, i conduct moveouts for a landlord. It is probably 15" H x 25" W. I soaked it in the bathtub for a full day. When my wife saw it, you would of thought i put an 8' alligator in the tub or something hehe. But anyway it floated, with a vengeance. So i went to Home Depot and bought a 12" square floor tile, pure slate. I looked for one with the least amount of rusted veins. I bouhgt a mason drill bit and drilled 2 holes in the slate, and used exterior coated screws safe for marine use, and just buried the slate in my gravel. It is staying in position fine. No major change to water chemistry. Here's the question of the day, will it stay sunken, or will i come home one day and find that the screws either stripoped out or rusted out and the wood flew up and destroyed my glass top and lighting? any thoughts?


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

I have a piece of drift wood being held down by a piece of granite tile with stainless steel screws holding it, so I wonder about that too. Being a cynic I suspect the probability of the wood popping to the surface is proportional to the cost of the glass cover, the light fixture and the fish. Fortunately, that would mean I'm safe!


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## SKSuser (Mar 20, 2006)

hoppycalif said:


> Being a cynic I suspect the probability of the wood popping to the surface is proportional to the cost of the glass cover, the light fixture and the fish. Fortunately, that would mean I'm safe!


Hehe,
Old Murphy's plan foiled again.
An alternate plan would be to use screws made of titanium or another non-rusting material. You'd of course have to drill a pilot hole if you were using a nylon screw, but its guaranteed to not rust. I also don't know if you'd find a nylon screw with aggressive enough threads to not slip on the wood. Surely there's a perfect screw out there.


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## kwc1974 (Jan 4, 2006)

I thought that Stainless Steel was (at least most grades) a not rusting material.


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## Amazon_Replica (Nov 24, 2007)

I' a paranoid cynic, I'm almost sure its going to happen lol. But Iguess you're right, if it does, it would balance cost I suppose, so heres to hoping for the good hehe


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## kwc1974 (Jan 4, 2006)

FYI I did this as well. I used plain deck screws (coated)
by the time the screws rusted out the driftwood was well waterlogged.

It did not hold the position I wanted anymore, but it sank like a brick.


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## SKSuser (Mar 20, 2006)

kwc1974 said:


> I thought that Stainless Steel was (at least most grades) a not rusting material.


Theoretically, yes....

However, I have noticed rust spots on some surgical tools which were "stainless." I carelessly washed them off, and then didn't dry them, instead leaving them to air dry. I've also noticed small rust spots on firearms which were "stainless."
In both cases, you have an item which is exposed to caustic materials and/or too much water. I don't take stock in the production quality of much of anything these days.

Titanium and platinum are the first items that come to my mind which are known to oxidize very slowly.
Thats a dangling participle, and I'm not up to fixing it.  Is it the metal that oxidizes or my mind. Hehe. I love to hate english.


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## kwc1974 (Jan 4, 2006)

SKSuser
The most common reason for stainless to rust are contamination with a carbon steel product and exposure to chlorides

chlorides are in most tap water and will eventually eat at stainless and cause it to have minor rust blooms , like you describe above
Carbon steel contamination can happen (in screws) by using a carbon steel screw bit or screw driver.

I guess being in a industry that deals with this I kind of take that knowledge for granted.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

There are many different alloys which are stainless steel. Some are more corrosion resistant than others. In a CO2 injected aquarium they see mildly acidic water all the time, so some of the cheapest alloys would be likely to corrode a little. If they are in contact with a more "noble" metal even the expensive ones might corrode a little.


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## Remster (Nov 25, 2007)

My driftwood was in a tank for a few years w/o a problem, then it stayed dry in the tank stored in an unfinished basement. For the past 2 yrs it was outdoors on a bare wood deck. I put it in the tank with nothing more than enough water to cover it for a few weeks to soak and it was covered with an almost clear inch thick haze of - something. Small residual bits of gravel became hazy "marbles", too. I've read this was not harmful and would eventually disappear. Any experience with this? I started my tank up again 2 wks ago and as much as I like these 2 pieces I'm afraid to include them.


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## Amazon_Replica (Nov 24, 2007)

is it snotty or hairy?


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## blacksmith37 (Oct 10, 2006)

I put steel rebar into holes drilled in the driftwood. To minimize the holes/rebar ,waterlog the wood for a while first. You can attach rebar to the wood with string/wire to determine how much you will need to sink it. The rebar had a raised pattern so is slightly larger than its nominal size, eg. 1/2" rebar is about 0.53 in diameter at the "high" spots. But if you really want to it will go into a 1/2' hole. 
Titanium ,platinum ? get real. 
Stainless steel fasteners are likelt to be 301, 302, or 304; all will pit in chloride. 316 fasteners are reasonably available and are more resistant to chloride pitting (but sea water will eat it up). 
If you can use stiff wire, weld supply shops will have TIG/ "heliarc" filler wires with enough alloy to hold up in sea water or anything else.


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## Brushy6 (Jun 12, 2007)

One reason why even quality stainless steels corrode - in the absence of chloride - is they need oxygen to maintain the protective oxide coating. Exposed to tank water, that's not a problem, but deep within the wood anaerobic conditions would be expected (even burried within a substrate you don't have much oxgygen around). All this doesn't mean the corrosion rate is going to ever be a problem. It means the stainless could be vulnerable to attack. Where this can become a problem is if you have an agressive environment. An example of this would be if for some reason anaerobic bacteria decided the area around the screw was a great location for serious hard-core partying. And if that were the case, I think (guess) the corrosion of the stainless might be less of a worry than what else the bacterica party was causing. I guess (- really guessing now) you'd have to be pretty unlucky to get a wood with a sulphur content where this would become extreme??


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## SKSuser (Mar 20, 2006)

blacksmith37 said:


> get real.


Oh goodness, I'm already real.  
I hope you don't honestly believe that I'm advocating the use of platinum in an aquarium. I was simply mentioning several metals which I trust more than stainless. I've personally observed stainless things stain on numerous ocassions.

I _was_ advocating the use of titanium. Its easily had, and a bit more expensive. Still its cheaper than replacing the glass hood, which was what we're trying to avoid in this particular thread. Its use in the aquarium is time proven. I've got a titanium heater right now with nary a spot on it. Its a shining beacon of non-stained beauty in my 29h.

Yes, 316 is fine. However, what about us amateurs in the screw buying department? We're not sure to get the right thing. Not to impute the people there, but there's no guarantee that the pimple faced kid at the Lowe Depot will hand us the right thing.
Walk in and say, "I want a titanium screw." They'll either say, "a whuh?" or give you something thats much lighter than steel and so is more easily identified than pulling out my rockwell gauge (which I don't have) and testing it to see if its 316.

So to sum it all up, could we concentrate on productive advice so that juanpronto doesn't get a big crack in his hood.

BTW, I do like the idea of using TIG wire. I hadn't thought of that before.


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