The Planted Tank Forum banner

Wood from Lake

2K views 11 replies 7 participants last post by  Dr.Dovii 
#1 ·
I went to the marina that I used to work for to find some drift wood so I wouldn't have to pay crazy store prices for some. Is there anything special I should do to this wood before I start this tank? I am going to have it as a planted aquarium. They are quite large, the tank size 125gal.

 
See less See more
1
#12 ·
The common advice against using self-collected items is: 1) Propogated to “sell” more stuff, and 2) Real because you do not know the “History” behind your collected items. There is the very real potential for “problems” hitchhiking along with the collected material. Organic/chemical contaminants to pollute your tank, parasites to affect your plants and fish, and non-beneficial organisms (algae, snails, bacteria). In this particular case, possibly oil/gasoline/diesel residues -from a marina-.

That said, I use self-collected items in my tanks routinely (wood, rocks, and substrate), and I have a lot of wild fish. I collect only from areas I am confident are “clean”, and rarely introduce the stuff into an established tank. I river sand for substrate toping, but only in September after it has baked at 120°F for a couple of months by the sun– no parasites. Heck, all the wood in stores was collected from somewhere.

Great layout. Looks exceptional. AND, if I had found those pieces, I surely would use them.

Repost in 6 months and let us know how your experiment worked.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top