# the wood



## voshod (Mar 22, 2007)

Hi,

I am wondering if I can use regular wood (dried that falls off the trees) instead of true driftwood.**I assume I will have to clean it a lot, and soak for a while, but is there anything different between driftwood and un-drifted wood in principle ?

Thanks !


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## turbomkt (Mar 31, 2004)

It's really a question of the type of wood, not how it was treated. Most of what we use is actually bog wood.

The big question I'd have about "un-drifted" wood is what will leech out of it and into the tank (Sap, etc).


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## marke14 (Mar 27, 2007)

turbomkt said:


> It's really a question of the type of wood, not how it was treated. Most of what we use is actually bog wood.
> 
> The big question I'd have about "un-drifted" wood is what will leech out of it and into the tank (Sap, etc).


And bog wood will generally not throw off your Ph, correct?


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## Muirner (Jan 9, 2007)

Malaysian driftwood will tint your water and supposidly lower your pH by some. How much i cannot say. I boiled my piece for a long while before using it.


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## voshod (Mar 22, 2007)

Thanks for the replies !

So, how would I go about finding out what the wood would leech into my tank ? Say, it's dry tortuosa (corkscrew willow). Do you think I should expect problems after adding it ?


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## DonaldmBoyer (Aug 18, 2005)

I would make sure that it is "dried out" and relatively brittle first. Then, I would boil several times to kill anything in it or on it, and to make sure any sap is out.

Basically, after you do this, the only thing that should leech into your water may be some tannins, which may tint your water brown, but is harmless. Activated carbon in your filter will get rid of the brown color anyways. So, this isn't very "dangerous" to do, and you should be fine.


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## Largesse (Apr 4, 2007)

I bought some wood at my local dealer, and even though I have activated carbon in my filter, the water tends to get brown every week. I change 50% of the water - 3rd week now. Should I keep changing it?


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## turbomkt (Mar 31, 2004)

Third week? Yep...keep going. It could be a couple months before the tannins are reduced enough for you to be happy.


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## Muirner (Jan 9, 2007)

Make sure any wood collected is a hardwood. Soft wood will rot. Also, what i did with my piece of driftwood was used a turkey fryer and kept the water boiling for about 3 hours at a time, I would dump 25-50% of the water out during the boiling, and the pot woudl be covered. and then uncovered and boiling for an hour. Then i would cover it up to cool down (it stays warmer longer this way and it was during the winter)

I ended up boiling it long enough to use almost an entire propane tank, and stll my water is slightly brown, not much but a little.


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## p3purr (Nov 6, 2006)

I got some driftwood but I'm not real sure if it's hard or soft wood. Are there ways to tell the difference? I suspect 2 of the pieces are soft since they are not sinking very well even after 3 or 4 months. They're not thick or large pieces. When I scubbed them they wore down a fair amount. I have 2 other pieces that are small and sunk well but they were both boiled. Boy did one give off tons of tannin! They both felt really solid. Are my assumsions about the correct?


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## voshod (Mar 22, 2007)

Thank you for the advice, everyone ! I will try boiling it and keeping wood in the water until it sinks. I'll post here how it comes out !

Thanks !


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