# Post your biggest piece of driftwood?



## willy11 (Jun 17, 2009)

ok so i went looking for some driftwood on the week end and i found a really good looking piece in a paddock, it has holes all through it and and is interestingly shaped(will try to get a pic up soon?) i now have i soaking in a big 200lt bin from bunnings but it doest really fit too well :egrin: ..
it is about 800mm long one way about 500mm deep and about 600-700mm roughly high, but has a branch stick up on the top that makes it about 900mm high :lol: , i know i know it quite big, i reckon it weighs about 25-30kilos too, has anybody ever put a piece of driftwood in there tank that was quite large? i was thinking that when people set up malawi tanks and the like with rocks there would be more than 30 kilos in some set ups??
experiences and info welcome?
oh and i read on another forum site that they put rock salt in the water when they were soaking it but im not sure if that will do anything?


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## willy11 (Jun 17, 2009)

ok so here are some photo's of the piece of wood, sorry for the bad photography though


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## jfly (Feb 17, 2009)

wow!!!  i bet that's heavy waterlogged
:thumb:


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## bulldogg7 (Mar 3, 2003)

If it don't fit, it'd be worth buying a new tank just to put that in :drooling:


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

I have a 6' round 300 gal Rubbermaid stock tank that your driftwood would look marvelous in...

I highly suggest you consider getting yourself one... or giving me the driftood...........


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## willy11 (Jun 17, 2009)

hey jfly, it is quite heavy when water logged, when i lifted it out to get some photo's i reackon it weighed about 40kilo's :drooling:

bulldogg7, it doesnt fit in my four footer i have atm, im looking for a 6footer now to put it in, im hoping it'll fit in that? :lol: otherwise il be cutting it down to fit..

toby, what is this rubbermaid tank your talking about?


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

Here's mine...










I bought it here - http://www.tractorsupply.com/webapp/wcs ... ue&cFlag=1


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## willy11 (Jun 17, 2009)

oh i see, you wouldnt be able to see the driftwood very well in that would you, just the top of it?
is that an oscar?
here is my four foot that i was going to put it in.


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

If you placed it the way it is in the pictures above... the gnarly stuff would be above the water and would be very visible... and would look very cool... the part that would be submerged seems like it is the boring side of the log...

I'm assuming your wood is a stump and a root system... sitting upside down in those pics... at least that's what it looks like to me in those pics...

How big is the piece? If it will fit in your aquarium then great... it just looks to big to fit in any typical sized aquarium... which is why I suggested the stock tank...

The stock tank I pictured above has a pair of Oscars out in the open... and about 15 other SA/CA Cichlids in it. It's not a very good "display" tank at all... but allows me to see some "natural behavior" unlike anything I've ever seen in a glass aquarium. Living 24/7 with solid walls makes them FAR more "comfortable" than any Cichlid in any glass box I've ever raised (and Iâ€™ve had a lot of glass boxes  )


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## willy11 (Jun 17, 2009)

true true, i see what you mean now.
indeed it is a root system, the bottom of it where it is standing up from is the start or the trunk, and i was thinking of cutting it down to where the roots start, because there are holes and tunnels all through it.
its roughly 800mm long(the longest point), about 500mm deep(the deepest part also) and with the trunk part still on it up to where the big pointy bit of it starts is about 500-600mm roughly? it that helps?
the big tup would be good, but i do prefer to be able to see them and keep it inside, (im guessing that tub is outside?)


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

You listed those measurements earlier... I was just to lazy to convert them to feet/inches...

For others who were lazy... that/s about 2.5' long x 1.6 feet deep @ 1.6 ~ 2' tall...

It's still huge... but not as huge as I originally thought... It does sound like it could be trimmed up to fit in an aquarium :thumb:

PS - that tub is in a spare bedroom... here is a pic of it in my bachelor pad... Who needs a dining room 









Note: The center brace on that 55 gal was broke and that's why it wasn't topped off... I keep my tanks better than that


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## willy11 (Jun 17, 2009)

wow, that pretty cool, youve got a few tanks there aye..
oh sorry forgot your from usa :lol: but yeah that sound about right in feet.. im going to look for some more this afternoon cos we had a storm last night and hoping there will be some washed somewhere along a creek bed? will let you know either way if i do find another one anyway?


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

Typical American right... too dumb to understand Imperial measurements and too lazy to convert them...

Oh, and back to your first post... asking about salt...

Soaking in saltwater does "cure" the wood in a way that protects it from rotting.

I've had mixed results with pulling wood out of freshwater sources. As you could imagine, hardwoods will do much better than softwoods. Soaking it in a saltwater solution will help "cure" the wood to a degree... the hotter the water the better off you'll be... with boiling it being ideal...

Boiling or soaking in hot water will also help remove any tannins in the woods surface. I've pulled some pieces out of local waters that didn't leach at all... and others that made my tank instantly look like tea...


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## Dj823cichild (Mar 30, 2009)

Toby_H said:


> You listed those measurements earlier... I was just to lazy to convert them to feet/inches...
> 
> For others who were lazy... that/s about 2.5' long x 1.6 feet deep @ 1.6 ~ 2' tall...
> 
> ...


Wow toby how many tanks do you have total? And what does your electric bill run?


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

In the last 7 years I've had as little as 300 gallons and as much as 1500 gallons...

..and we don't talk about electric bills... 

Actually it's not that bad. I don't use any fancy lighting and my use mostly aqua clear 110s at 14 watts each... and I prefer it warm so I don't force my AC and tank heaters to battle too hard...


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## willy11 (Jun 17, 2009)

so what ratio of salt to water would you need than to cure it properly?
its abit hard to boil 200lts too to fill the tub its in hopefully leaveing it in the sun will help with that aswell as changing the water every second day? iv got abit of time up my sleve anyways before it goes in a tank so no rush yet.. il see how i go anyway? didnt find any other interesting pieces the other day either, but i did find a 2.5m long snake in the bush, nothing beats abit of excitment


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

It depends on the type of salt you use... but since you aren't trying to support life, your just curing wood... I think the window of acceptible is huge...

I would aim for a little saltier than ocean water... you can look up values but I'd just mix it until it tastes saltier than the ocean 

I fully understand boiling a 200 liter (50 gal) pot is excessive. I've had luck putting the wood in a large container and dumping in boiling water as often as practical...

As for curing the wood... there is no need to change the water... but as for leaching tannins, you'll want to change the water as often as possible...


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## willy11 (Jun 17, 2009)

cool, so could i just use normal table salt or should i get something else if i decide to go that way? thanks for the help too everybody :thumb:


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

table salt would work...

I've heard mixed reviews about using table salt in aquariums... but your just using it to cure the wood...


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## willy11 (Jun 17, 2009)

ok cool no worries, sorry but this is prolly a stupid question but what does the curing do to the piece of wood? :-?


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## willy11 (Jun 17, 2009)

never mind i just re read the posts i worked it out :lol:


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## Toby_H (Apr 15, 2005)

:thumb:

stops it from rotting


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## xTmDarren (Apr 27, 2009)

Gezz Toby- I've read a lot of ur post but didn't know you had that many tanks.. hehe and the funny thing is I dont live that far from you..

anyways, I would definitely boil some water and throw it over top of it in a big bucket of some sort.. I only did a 2 footer in mine and found a nice sized step bucket at ikea for like 10 bucks that held 20+ gallons.. Also aquarium salt shouldn't be that much at a lps, and most people like myself actually add freshwater aquarium salt in there tanks anyways.. But its probably going to take a over a week with boiling water to even get the water from changing to brown. It sucks and its a long process but its well worth it.. I boiled mine twice a day and left a towel over it for over a week and a half before I put it in my 55 gallon aquarium.

anyways good luck and that is a beautiful piece of wood.


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## vaypourus (May 20, 2008)

Here is a big stump I pulled out of the Genesee River gorge.










It took several hours to boil it because I could only boil one section of thing at a time...I had the roomie's girlfriend convinced I was making "Driftwood Stew" :lol:










It's a beauty, but wouldn't fit in my 55. It will go in my next "big" tank.


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## willy11 (Jun 17, 2009)

gday mate love the piece of drift wood you have there, iv got the same problem with boiling it, iuts gona take forever, and now that the tub it was sitting in has cracked its going to take longer  ..
sounds good cant wait to get it in a tank now though..


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