# LF: Large Driftwood for 5 Foot Tank



## Sargasso (Apr 21, 2010)

Not sure that this belongs in this section, but the scale tipped slightly towards "plants" versus "equipment".

I'm looking for a large piece of driftwood to put in my 60"W x 18"D x 30"T tank.

I'd buy some, but I'd also be up for a driftwood roadtrip if someone knows where to get some good stuff. Could be a fun weekend trip if a couple people are also looking...

Something like this'd do the trick.


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## Adz1 (Apr 21, 2010)

no need for a road trip buntzen lake is a prime spot.
i've gotten a few pieces from there also.


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## bonsai dave (Apr 21, 2010)

check with april she has a few nice pieces.


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## Scholz (Apr 21, 2010)

the mouth of the squamish river..... on the spit.... tons of cool drift wood


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## fraggalrock (Apr 21, 2010)

MMM Im looking too,guess im off to Bunzen tomorrow


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## Clownloachlover (Apr 21, 2010)

you might want to be careful about driftwood from local lakes...I am not sure whether or not I believe it or not...but this was written to a posting I started about driftwood from Harrison Lake!

If the wood is cedar, you might want to reconsider using it.

A couple years back I collected a beautiful piece of cedar to use as a centre piece. But then I thought I better check up on it first. I had trouble finding consensus on whether cedar was aquarium safe or not, but with all the concerns out there, decided to give up, put it in my garden and get a manzanita stump for my aquarium.

The concerns around cedar are due to the same properties that make it the perfect choice for building fences and decks. The natural oils in the wood preserve it and repel insects. And because these oils are toxic to rodents you can't use cedar with rodents, since chewing it makes them sick. So I wouldn't want to use it with any invertebrates or wood-rasping plecos either.

A few people out there do make claims that the cedar oils are a good thing in the aquarium because they kill some parasites. But the vast majority advise against using cedar. Some examples:

http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/f...quarium-22486/

http://www.fishlore.com/fishforum/dr...driftwood.html

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...not-use-2.html

Cedar is also very buoyant, and thus would be hard to get to sink. I tried soaking my piece for a couple months with no luck (although this did allow me lots of time to research whether it was safe).


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## Kolewolf (Apr 21, 2010)

I found a piece of Cedar that I wanted to use and had the same concerns. So I decided to test it and put the wood in a 150G with a bunch of Mountain Minnows. They showed no ill effects and lasted the entire summer in the tank until it got too cold and I abandoned the experiment. That particular piece was very old and had been removed from the tree for many years so i believe all the oils had gone.



Clownloachlover said:


> you might want to be careful about driftwood from local lakes...I am not sure whether or not I believe it or not...but this was written to a posting I started about driftwood from Harrison Lake!
> 
> If the wood is cedar, you might want to reconsider using it.
> 
> ...


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## Johnnyfishtanks (Apr 21, 2010)

Kolewolf said:


> I found a piece of Cedar that I wanted to use and had the same concerns. So I decided to test it and put the wood in a 150G with a bunch of Mountain Minnows. They showed no ill effects and lasted the entire summer in the tank until it got too cold and I abandoned the experiment. That particular piece was very old and had been removed from the tree for many years so i believe all the oils had gone.


if you get manzanita wood what would you do . boil it . dry it out then water log it what would be a good thing to do


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## Kolewolf (Apr 21, 2010)

Johnnyfishtanks said:


> if you get manzanita wood how would you sure it our would you . boil it . dry it out then water log it what would be a good thing to do


Sorry....I don't understand the question???


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## pieces71 (Apr 21, 2010)

Johnnyfishtanks said:


> if you get manzanita wood what would you do . boil it . dry it out then water log it what would be a good thing to do


you do not need to dry it if you going to water log it,it takes quite a while for a manzanita to sink and leached out all it tannis


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## Johnnyfishtanks (Apr 21, 2010)

Kolewolf said:


> Sorry....I don't understand the question???


i had to change that like two sec after


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## Sargasso (Apr 21, 2010)

I read somewhere (perhaps the old BCA) that it was better to use Oceanic driftwood in freshwater tanks because parasites and undesirables from a saltwater environment couldn't survive in fresh, and vice versa.

I'd really like to get a piece that's too big to boil... that is, unless someone has a cauldron I could make use of. 

What would be the best way to sterilize a large piece? Bleach?


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