# best way to sink drift wood



## jimmyle

what is the best way to sink some driftwood and how long does it usually take?


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## eklikewhoa

boil it


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## Hashbaz

It really depends on the wood. Some will sink right away, some will never sink without help. After soaking (or boiling) for a while check to see how boyant it is by floating it. If a lot of wood is sticking above the water it might not ever sink - or at lest not for a while yet. If only a little tiny bit of the wood is above the water you are relatively close to being done.

For wood that never sinks, people will use stainless steel screw to bolt it to a piece of slate. I have also heard of other people who will bolt it to the clear portion of a CD case and then put the CD case portion under the gravel.


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## blyxa

I have never had any luck boil it to sink it. I left mine soak in a deep sink and weighed it down.


How would you boil the wood to get it to sink?


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## jon_the_newb

I found a tub big enough and deep enough to hold mine and filled it with clean, dechlorinated, water, I put it in and placed a nice big rock on it. I don't know when it stopped floating really. It was leaking tannins alot longer, I finally got tired of waiting for it stop browning up the water and just put it in. It never really leaked enough while in the tank to change the water color.

Jon


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## vic46

Torpedo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just couldn't pass it up. One way is to screw a piece of slate to the driftwood and bury the slate in the substrate. Be sure to use stainless steel, bronze of plastic screws. Any other kind is likely to cause some water difficulties.
Cheers;
Vic


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## jimmyle

alright guys thanks alot ill try it as soon as i get some bolts and stuff


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## Catastrophi

Make sure you know how you want to place the driftwood in the tank because you wouldn't want to screw it to slate and change your mind as to how you want it placed.


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## Muirner

I purchased Malaysian driftwood. This is supposed to sink right away. What I did prior to putting it in my tank was boil it for ~5 hours in a turkey fryer. Using almost an entire propaine tank. Switching the water a few times allowed me to change out the Tannis stained water. After the boiling happened I let it sit in the water for another 5ish days. Took it out put it in my tank, and it sunk like a rock.


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## riverspryte

My driftwood was too big to boil on the stove, and I had to get the tannins out, so I put mine in a medium sized cooler, and poured several pots of boiling water over it, then closed the lid. Doing this worked really well, and I only had to soak it for four days to get the tannins out instead of the usual 1-2 weeks.


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## blyxa

I think boiling only works sometimes because I boiled mine for 5ish hours and it still didn't sink...yerg. Might be the different wood species. But boy it never leached any more tannins- even boiling it for 10-15 minutes leaches most of the tannins.


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## Left Coast DJ

Malaysian and Swahala driftwood should sink almost immediately. However, I recently drilled too much into a piece of Swahala I had and it started floating. I left it floating in a bucket of water for a few days and now it's sinking to the bottom of the bucket. Each type of wood has different properties and length of time as to when it'll get water-logged.

I suppose you could also trying using silicone to attach driftwood to a rock.

DJ


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