# what wood to use in tank



## spit.fire (Jan 3, 2011)

ive got a pond on my property and i was wondering if i can take wood out of the pond, clean it, and put it in my tank

if its fine to do what all do i have to do as far as cleaning goes


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## christhefish (Nov 8, 2010)

it should be okay just scrub it or boil it and scrub


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## EDGE (Aug 24, 2010)

definitely boil/disinfect anything that has been sitting outside especially in contact with outside ground water. There is a lot of pathogen and disease that is quite deadly. Assume the wood is covered in pathogen and you will have less problem in the tank.


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## jlam86 (Dec 7, 2010)

Over the past 1.5 weeks, I have been boiling and soaking a piece of wood i found in a park area near the beach. I have boiled the wood over ten times for sure now and the water is still turning light brown. Like a super water-down tea...



so close to giving up on it lol! i can see why they charge so much at a store lol


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## big_bubba_B (Apr 25, 2010)

jlam86 said:


> Over the past 1.5 weeks, I have been boiling and soaking a piece of wood i found in a park area near the beach. I have boiled the wood over ten times for sure now and the water is still turning light brown. Like a super water-down tea...
> 
> so close to giving up on it lol! i can see why they charge so much at a store lol


run carbon for awhile eventuly the tannins will all leach out carbon will will help take it out . and just do water changes


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## jlam86 (Dec 7, 2010)

u mean just throw a carbon bag filter into the bucket and continue doing water changes?


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## tony1928 (Apr 22, 2010)

tannins from wood takes a long time to get out. I had a huge stump of bog wood that leached for a couple of years. I ended up running a bag of purigen in my canister and it pulled out all the brown out of the water. I'm sure the stump was still leaching but at least I didn't have to see it. Carbon would work too, probably not nearly as effective as Purigen but would be way cheaper.


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## AWW (Apr 22, 2010)

tannins wont harm fish. In all honesty, you should be doing weekly water changes anyways. I use them as a "oh crap, change the water" type of deal. 

Before putting driftwood in the water, just make sure everything on the piece is dead. You can poor bleach water over it, and rinse, wait 48 hours, for big pieces. Small pieces just boil.

I get wood from my local river all the time


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## jlam86 (Dec 7, 2010)

So even if it bleeds a tad of brown, it should be good for placing into the aquarium if it's been boiled for over 15 times at 30 minute intervals?


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## jassz (Dec 24, 2010)

I thought the tannis was actually beneficial in that not a lot of diseases adn parasites can live in the water. And with the right landscaping (river rock etc), the tea coloured water can actually be quite striking. I guess it depends on what fish you put in it. There's a dentist's office that I walk by with this kind of set up, and it had neon tetras, and they are a nice contrast to the dark water.

I believe the ones you buy in the stores still behave the same way, do they not?


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## jlam86 (Dec 7, 2010)

i've had mine in a test tank with a "test" fish ever since sunday and s/he is really enjoying it =)


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## _TiDy_ (Apr 29, 2010)

tannins arn't harmful to the fish, just not pleasing to the eye. But like mentioned above, just buy some purigen and the color will be taken care of. JL aquatics is the cheapest place I've seen for it. Plus the purigen i re-usable unlike carbon.


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## Johnnyfishtanks (Apr 21, 2010)

Purigen never heard of this stuff. just looked it up sounds like a good thing to use


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## Mferko (Jun 8, 2010)

Johnnyfishtanks said:


> Purigen never heard of this stuff. just looked it up sounds like a good thing to use


its fantastic, keeps your water crystal clear and you can bleach it to recharge and reuse it


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## Johnnyfishtanks (Apr 21, 2010)

ya i gotta get some .


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