Grapewood in aquarium....experiences?

[aquasox]

I have this beautiful piece of grapewood that I would like to use in my 38 gallon, but I have heard mixed things about mold growth and the wood rotting....others have not had these problems.

Just wondering if anybody has used it and what their opinion is?

[epicfish]

It'll get soft and rot over time...or so I've seen with the limited experience I've had with it and from reading on other forums.

[plantbrain]

I tried several times, lots of character etc, sandblasted it myself etc.
Never faired well, part of the wood gets bad slime fungus that is tough to get rid of, rots fairly quickly.

One of the few woods that does not do well.
I tried and tired.

If you sprayed it with polyurethane etc, then it would be fine.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[Leviathan_XE]

Oh, wow. What great timing I have! After hitting a few stores and coming up empty on dritfwwod. I just returned home from a Petco, after buying some! I'm going for a natural look, and all they had in the decor section was a bunch of little houses and statues. I happened down the reptile isle and saw some. They had some very nice shapes and were about 10 of them in a bag for about 10 bucks so I picked them up. I put them in a bucket of tank water and I did noticed that they float.
So how long once placed in the tank do they start to turn bad? After reading this I was wondering should I keep them and try to make themwork or did I just wase a 10 spot?

[aquasox]

With regards to polyurethane I'm assuming of course it's safe for the fish and plants?

Also would I still be able to attach moss and ferns to it?

Thanks

[CKJ]

I got the same idea in petsmart about the reptile isle and found a nice little chunk of Mopani wood. It's not a huge chunk but pretty dense and heavy wood so it sunk right away!

Try to weigh it down with something in the bucket to make sure it gets really good and water logged. Not sure if just water logging will make it ever completely stay sunk or how long it will take. I also boiled mine too.

What kind of wood is it?

[Leviathan_XE]

CKJ, unfortunately it's grapewood. Which sucks because the peices are the perfect size and shape that I need. I left them in the bucket overnight and they have started to sink but now I'm worrying about how soon they will rot once I place them in the tank.

[CKJ]

Yikes! Sorry!! Best of luck to you as I bet they would really look neat in there. Mark on your calendar when you put them then you have some sort of idea how long they'll last! And also the we'll know too!

Can't wait to see pics!

Cindy

[travis]

IME grapewood does not sink easily so I usually cheat and screw it to a piece of slate to hold it down. All of the grapewood I've used gets a white fungal growth after a few days submersed. It can be scrubbed off but will come back. After several weeks it will eventually go away and you will have a nice piece of wood that will darken over time. I can't speak to the rotting issue because I've never kept any submersed for more than 4-5 months, but I suspect that its long-term viability is doubtful unless you can find some aquarium-safe method of waterproofing it. If you do, I would be curious to know.

You might also look into manzanita wood. It has a similar knobby, twisted growth habit like grapewood and will not rot on you, although it is just as buoyant as grapewood and will require prolonged soaking or anchoring.

Good luck

[aquasox]

Travis I'm going to bolt it down with slate....and waterproof it with either polyurethane or epoxy. I'll let you know how its works out.

Funny I do have manzanita, but the grapewood pieces look even better.

[pb300]

Have had some in my tank for about 5 months now and is still holding up good. Make sure you boil it, and boil it, and...you get the idea. This will help it to sink fast and keep your water from turning into tea. Yes it does get the white fungus but just leave it alone and it will go away soon enough.

[aquasox]

Seems now there is a good chance that it will be alright for at least 5 months (w/ no treatment).

Like I mentioned before I plan to treat the wood. I'll update thread when I do.

[airbreather]

I soaked two beautiful pieces of grapewood overnight in the tub with a rock on top of it, and by morning it was waterlogged enough to sink on its own. But I would NOT recommend it because it clouded the tank terribly! My poor fishies had to have more than half of their water changed at once because they were swimming in grapewood tea by morning. I thought I'd already learned my lesson for not listening to pet store folk - they told me that it'd be fine. Duh. I guess I'll try boiling it because I can't take it back now, but finding a stewpot big enough for it is going to be a challenge.

Epoxying it sort of defeats the purpose, don't you think? You might as well buy some of that molded resin decoration at that point.

[travis]

If you don't have a pot large enough to boil it you can run it through a dishwasher on the 'Hot' cycle several times. Although not as effective as boiling, it will help. Good luck.

[fishbguy1]

I have a piece od grape wqood in my 6 gallon. I'm not sure how long it took to sink, because I just wedged it into teh tank and put a rock on top of it.

About 3 days after putting it in the water, I noticed some fuzzy white stuff growing the the cracks, and I just scrapped it off, and it has never come back.

It's been in the tank for about 3 months or so.

I havn't noticed anything bad yet, but as soon as I find some mopani that I like or some manzita, I"m changing it out.