Driftwood/Bogwood
Contents:
- Re: 55 gallon Tank, New to Apistos, You make the Call!!
by Ken Laidlaw <K.Laidlaw/roe.ac.uk> (Tue, 14 Apr 1998)
- (No Title)
by "alex pastor" <alexp/idirect.com> (Sat, 20 Feb 1999)
- Re:
by IDMiamiBob/aol.com (Sat, 20 Feb 1999)
- Amano's driftwood
by "Edison C. Yap" <integrit/mnl.sequel.net> (Mon, 19 Jul 1999)
- colored water
by "Roger S. Miller" <rgrmill/rt66.com> (Thu, 15 Jul 1999)
- RE: Large Driftwood
by Dwight <boukmn/mindspring.com> (Sun, 29 Aug 1999)
- Autoclaving driftwood update
by Adele and Davis Gailitis <adele_davis/yahoo.com> (Tue, 25 Jul 2000)
- autoclaving driftwood
by "Cathy Hartland" <hartland/nfis.com> (Tue, 4 Jul 2000)
by Ken Laidlaw <K.Laidlaw/roe.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998
To: apisto/majordomo.pobox.com
> I too had some drift wood in a 55 gallon apisto tank. The problem I had with
> it is it consistently got fungused and there was no way I could keep it
> clean even with scrubbing.
If drift wood gets fungussed like this then it is not
completely dead (don't know the details) and should not be
used. It is probably best to use bog wood (not drift) or
the stuff they are selling in the UK at the moment which is
called Mopani wood. It is a light colour when you buy it
but it soon becomes water logged and dark in colour. It
doesn't get fungussed.
Ken.
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by "alex pastor" <alexp/idirect.com>
Date: Sat, 20 Feb 1999
To: <apisto/pudge.listbox.com>
Matt writes
>semi of topic here, I'm stting up a new tank shorty, and was considering
>putting some african rootwood/bogwood in, are there any special precautions
>that need to be taken before placing it in the tank? is soaking and boiling
>necessary, as is the case with driftwood? thanks for any advice
If you are refering to 'Mopani' wood, then this is how we have dealt with
it:
put it in a big (huge) bucket and fill with hot water from the tap.
drain and repeat daily if and until the water is dark brown after 24 hours
then repeat less frequently depending on the colour of the water
after about three weeks you will have a situation where the water takes a
few days to turn light brown
at this stage, the wood will be sufficiently water-logged that it will stay
put when you put it in the tank. however it will still leach tannins.
Tannins are not toxic and some people like the colour their water takes on.
If you don't, or if you want to keep things under control, use carbon in
your filter.
If you do not soak it for a long time, then you may find that the wood will
grow a white fungus layer on it. This can be vacuumed off but it stinks and
is an aesthetic disaster. Repeated soakings in hot water seems to prevent
whatever it is that makes the fungus grow.
Mopani wood looks nice once it has stabilized. But it can take months
before it stops leaching significant amounts of tannins.
At the lfs they told me to soak it for three days. HUH!!! What an
experience! I think they just want to sell as much of the stuff as possible
and if they tell customers the truth about how long it really takes until it
is O.K. to leave in the tank, then nobody would buy it. :)
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by IDMiamiBob/aol.com
Date: Sat, 20 Feb 1999
To: apisto/pudge.listbox.com
In a message dated 2/20/99 4:24:37 PM Mountain Standard Time, mgaber@erols.com
writes:
> is soaking and boiling
> necessary, as is the case with driftwood?
I would recommend doing it with any piece of wood, both for sterility reasons
and for bouyancy reasons. If you boil it, you kill virtually every pathogen
known. If you boile it, it expands the air inside the wood, driving much of
it out. Let it soak as it cools, and the contracting remnant will be
supplemented with water, rather than replacement air, reducing the time needed
to get it to sink.
I used a piece of choya wood to receive some Bolbitis fern a couple days ago.
I boiled it for ten minutes, ran cold water into the pot, let it soak, and
tied on the fern. I stuck a small rock on it overnight, and now it is already
willing to stay down wiithout the weight, after ony two days.
Bob Dixon
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by "Edison C. Yap" <integrit/mnl.sequel.net>
Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999
The driftwood that Amano is using is indeed mangrove roots this type of
wood is particularly found here in the Philippines! We have this kind of
root in every Fish shops here and they are really tough wood wherein you
can grow Microsorum pteropus in them.
I hope that this has helped you somewhat.
Edison Yap
Philippines
by "Roger S. Miller" <rgrmill/rt66.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999
Folks,
Several have already pointed out that driftwood can leach color into
water. A substrate with peat or potting soil can do the same.
Water changes help. Also, activated carbon will remove color. Both of
these are temporary color reductions. Use new, high quality activated
carbon and remove it from your filter after the color is reduced to an
acceptable level. Activated carbon may also remove some trace metals, so
you probably want to hold off on iron and/or trace-element fertilizer
until after you remove the carbon filter.
After a while the color will stop bleeding out of the wood (or substrate).
Roger Miller
by Dwight <boukmn/mindspring.com>
Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1999
<< Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1999 07:55:15 +0800
<From: Alfred Heng <alheng@pacific.net.sg>
<Subject: large drift wood
<Hi all
<How would I ensure that the large piece of wood I want to put into my tank
<is not carrying any "BUGS"? I can't boil this one as it is over 3 feet
<long. Is there a chemical you use? If so will I have a problem washing
<< the chemical out before introducing it into the tank?
So much of the "Driftwood" sold these days has never seen surf. Much of it
gets its "look" from being sandblasted by desert wind. These will almost
certainly leach discolouring tannins in the tank water w/o hours of
boiling. They also almost always need to be weighted. Others are hauled in
from freshwater rivers/lakes. I wouldn't put these in freshwater tank w/o
bug decontamination. I agree with Tom Barr's assessment as to what to do
with wood you are unsure off.
I collect REAL seaside driftwood from which "drift"-wood gets its name.
Healthy seaside trees killed and uprooted by a sudden rise in surf. The
Australian pine wood is very dense (sinks w/o help) and seems to resist
rot. The surf slaps some about for so long all their bark is ground away
and tannins are thoroughly leached out. Some pieces get a barnacle or two.
Most that remain emersed grow seaweed. Rest assured salt-water "bugs"
mould, bac etc. die in contact with freshwater.
If I were you, I would collect my driftwood personally from the nearest
surf/estuary but be careful which surf you comb. Some surf is mostly
industrial and while its waves will leach out discolourng tannins they
allow the trees to absorb industrial contaminants. Diagnose your surf
before lifting that stump; how do the biologists in your area rate the
health of indigenous brackish water vegetation? Do thick globs of oil coat
the surface at times? What kind of industrial waste release did this or
that nearby factory get cited for recently? These are factors that can
affect the safety of your driftwood. South Florida is lucky in that w/o
clean beaches our economy tanks. Hawaii is in a similar situation. Yet even
here there are relative areas of safety. If I am on the mainland Florida I
checkout the mangroves. If I am in the Keys I check water clarity and
vegetation (if I can see 10ft down, I collect).
I once found a HUGE stump from a 10" diameter tree trunk that I had to saw
into chunks to use. Its internal components were shielded from the surf's
leaching action and it bled for days. That's why I only collect the smaller
stumps (trunk diameter 1.5"-4") which have a much higher surface area to
volume ratio and require little more preparation than slapping off the sand
and scrapping off the seaweed.
~D.Chang;
"A-stumpin' in Ft.Lauderdale"
See my Driftwood stumps at
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=153372989
by Adele and Davis Gailitis <adele_davis/yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2000
Hello all :)
It has been a couple of weeks since I posted
about autoclaveing
driftwood. First of all I would like to thank those
that responded to my
original post again. With out your impute I would have
been lost.
My original post:
Date: Mon, 3 Jul 2000 17:25:36 -0700 (PDT)
Hello everyone:) I have a large piece of driftwood
36"x16"x20" that I pulled out of a back woods fresh
water river and I was wondering about sterilizing it.
I am a foundry tech at York U and I have access to an
Autoclave which has enough room in it to put three of
this size in it. I was wondering if this sounds ok
instead of using a bleach solution on the wood. I
would still soak and boil it in water for a while, I
don't think the Autoclave would get rid of the excess
sap or tannins in the wood. Your comments would be
most appreciated. Thanks much Davis:)
I would like to give you an update on my
experience and some
questions. Just before I posted this I preped the
piece of DF (Cutting to
fit and siliconing it to a piece of slate). After the
responses, I went
ahead and autoclaved my piece of DF. I left the DF in
the autoclave for
three hours occasionaly recharging the autoclave. I
had access to a
large plastic vat which I could soak the DF in.
First problem incountered, the outside layer of
the DF was burnt.
I thought the water was hot enough in the vat to put
the DF in. First
mistake incountered. As soon as I put the piece in the
slate cracked and
split in two horazontaly, this was ok since it was
still 1" thick. I
proceeded to srub the burnt layer off. Second
problem encountered,
while I was doing this the DF detached itself from the
slate. Continued
to scrub the burnt layer off and remove silicon from
the DF. Silicon
came off pretty easy. Do not know if this was due to
the dampness that
might have been in the DF that I didn't know about, or
the high heat of
the autoclave (didn't use high heat resistant
silicon). The water turned
a lovely shade of black. Changed the water five times
while scrubbing
burnt layer off. Df was showing wonderfull colors
under burn't layer.
Due to the slate unataching itself the DF floated. Put
weight on top of
it and proceeded to soak it in hot water to get rid of
the air.
Soaking was going allright, changed the water
three times a day so
as to keep the water temp. at a high. By the 20th of
July (almost three
weeks in water) the DF was still floating a little
bit, but the soaking
water was clear. Decided to get some stainless steel
screws, drill the
piece of slate and mechanicaly attach the DF. Brought
it home in a bag
(as per a response I recieved to keep it wet) I also
wraped it in wet
towels. Proceeded to aquascape the tank.
Started Sat. morning finaly finished planting
Mon. night. DF was
in full water by Sat. afternoon.
Second problem encountered. Woke up this morning
(Tues. 25th) and
noticed a lovely white fuzzy fungus developing all
over the DF. Dwight was right.
Dwight's post:
I'm wondering why is there so much concern about
driftwood enough to
autoclave it? IMHO, sterilization of DW is
counterproductive b/c its not
going to prevent your tank (if its unbalanced) from
being invaded by algae.
All sterilizing your DW will do is provide low -
competition territory for
fungal invasion!
So my question is this: Am I just deluding myself
thinking that the fungus will eventualy go away or do
I have to pull the DF out of my tank?
Thanks much for the patiance in reading this and any
help I can get.
Davis :)
adele_davis@yahoo.com
__________________________________________________
by "Cathy Hartland" <hartland/nfis.com>
Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2000
Davis Gailitis wrote:
> Hello everyone:) I have a large piece of driftwood
> 36"x16"x20" that I pulled out of a back woods fresh
> water river and I was wondering about steralizing it.
> I am a foundry tech at York U and I have access to an
> Autoclave which has enough room in it to put three of
> this size in it. I was wondering if this sounds ok
> instead of using a bleach solution on the wood. I
> would still soak and boil it in water for a while, I
> don't think the Autoclave would get rid of the exess
> sap or tannins in the wood. Your comments would be
> most appreciated. Thanks much Davis:)
I have autoclaved large pieces of driftwood and it has worked fine
for me. The driftwood swells and becomes more porous, and the
steam forces some moisture into the wood, so your soaking phase
will take less time than it would have without autoclaving. I put the
wood into a plastic bag after sterilizing to maintain the moisture
until I could get it home to soak it. Be prepared for some funky
odors emanating from the autoclave though!
Cathy Hartland
Middletown, MD
The Krib
Tank Hardware
The Krib