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Using Bush branches for fish tank decor

13K views 51 replies 9 participants last post by  Bananableps 
#1 ·
Hello All,

So today I went by a local pond to try to find some drift wood or dried branches that might look nice in a fish tank. I didn't find much. When I got home, I looked this bush that I have in my back yard, the way the branches branch out in a bunch of different directions, it seems like it would look nice.

Has anyone every tried this?

Of course I would have to chop up the bush and wait for it to dry out first before I could even use it. I also thought about using the base to turn it into a big tree in my 55G.

How long do you think it would take to dry out?

Here is a couple pictures of the bush:

What do you guys think; yay or na?

I know it might be a lot of work, and time just to get it ready to go for the tank, but I don't mind. I think the process could be fun.
 

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#44 ·
So I added all my fish back to the 55G.

The water parameters where fine, so I added a few fish and they seemed to be doing okay. I was going to wait a day or two to add the rest of my fish, but they were to cramped in the 10G and when I noticed that one of my algae eaters died, I decided to put them all back in the 55G.

They are doing way better now with lots of space again. The fish love the wood and the few plants that I have put in there so far (Hygrophila Kompakt and Anubias Nana). I'm going to start a new thread for the tank.

I'll leave this thread for updates on the branches from the bush I cut up.
 
#49 ·
Why not just try it out? Cut a branch off fresh and green from the plant in order to get a worst case scenario of what kind of stuff is going to be leached into your water. Put it in a small quarantine aquarium and leave it there for a week. Test the water PH, and if it seems okay dump a feeder guppy in and see how it fairs.

Also, don't worry about tannins! Stained water is very in vogue at the moment.
 
#50 · (Edited)
I"m not really worried about tannins.

It would be a nice test actually; I'm not sure if anyone has tried that on this forum. I might try it in the future though.

As far as the bush branches that I have in my garage. I guess you can say that is a test to see how long it will take to dry out and be ready for a tank from a fresh cut.

Most pieces that I have are still drying out in the garage. I also left some outside with the stump. I'll see what the difference is like between the two in a few months...
 
#51 ·
The wood is one of the pieces from the bush. It is pretty dried out, not completely I'm sure because it hasn't been that long, bit I'm thinking about trying it out soon just to see what happens...

I'm going to throw it in a a bucket of water, let it sink...

Anyways this is a potential setup I'm thinking of.

If you can picture this, I'm going to get another rock for the front left, the wood piece and center rock will be raised an inch or two. The substrate level will cover the majority of the other rocks, and it will slop up on the right side. I will be using really fine pebbles.

I actually strained through some play sand see here: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=472130

I'm going to use the fine pebbles from that thread...

I'll start a thread on the tank when I get it setup...


Anyways, I guess we will see what this bush that I chopped up has to offer soon!
 

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