# is it possible to make ur own driftwood



## gus211 (Sep 21, 2009)

I was wondering if anyone had tried this with any success I was thinking of leaving some type of branch in my empty 100 gallon tank and treating with prime would that work there no driftwood in my area and to buy it from a lfs is an arm and a leg


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

my first answer when I read this was "yes! toss wood into river and wait a couple of years. It'll drift along and bleach, etc. " 

I think your real question is "does it have to be driftwood or can I treat wood somehow to use as a decoration in my aquarium?" :lol:

You can make wood suitable for an aquarium... I've seen people soak it, sand blast it, just go ahead and use it tannins and all, etc. The 1st question is what type of wood can you find? 
cedar? maple? ash?

identification is step number 1... and no, you can't cut green wood off a tree. 8)


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

What type/size do you have in mind? Driftwood is not the most accurate term for the wood I use. I find wood that has been sun baked works fine. I bleach to kill most anything that would come out of the wood. What type wood to use depends on personal choice as well as how tolerant you are of some of the potential results. Some wood will have tannins which color your water, some water PH will require closer watch. Water with low GH/KH will let the PH drift more easily. Either can be solved by more water changes. Some wood will rot away in a few years but for me and my tanks that is no problem-- I get the wood for free. About the only way to know for "sure" is to try it. The only way I go is to study it a bit and try it.


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## bntbrl (Apr 23, 2009)

I would stay away from pine and other sappy wood and anything that smells like pine. *** used found driftwood for a lot of years. Scrub it or clean it and soak it a few days in a bucket. Some use bleach, *** used bleach, some *** washed and put in right away. *** been lucky that I havent had problems perhaps with as loose as I have used it. I havent used found wood right away in delicate species tanks, etc. I kept an eye in it for a while. I do water changes anyway so tannins dont bother me and I also keep a lot of SA fish so it doesnt bother them either. If you re overly worried you can buy it from the LFS. Its not cheap anymore but you dont have to worry about salts, bugs, parasites, etc or tannins. I would only collect from a clean place, not lik ea city harbor that smells like death and decay with the sewer draining diorectly into it etc. Look around for clean stuff, you can find it.


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

Most pet shop driftwood is not wood found drifting in a lake or river. It is wood from tree stumps that have been pulled out of the ground.

Some of the best are old grape vine stumps and iron wood stumps because they are very dense and sink without being screwed to a slate or ceramic tile base. Another source is cactus. The skeletal looking wood from a cactus is fine. Plecos love it, but how they would ever come across it in nature seems improbable.


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## gus211 (Sep 21, 2009)

Well the reason I ask is because the neighboor has an old mullberry tree its all dried up. Yesterday I was looking at it and figured I'd ask. We have the rio grande that passes through my city but I really wouldn't want to use anything that comes out of that river. Anyway would the old dried up branches of a mullberry tree work I guess is my question


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

Depends somewhat on your expertise. Doesn't it all? By that I mean if you watch for any problems like sap making the PH drift and do water changes or whatever needed, I would see no problem other than if it is not truly dry you may get more color and it may also need more to hold it down than some of the store stuff. I either tie it to rocks or pile them in top to keep wood from floating. I rarely find any that doesn't float so go with what I find. I use cedar pretty frequently and assume there is some oil or sap but since I do water changes I don't find any trouble in my type water. The good outweights the bad for me. Free is always good so you can ditch it and try something else if necessary.


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

gus211 said:


> Well the reason I ask is because the neighboor has an old mullberry tree its all dried up. Yesterday I was looking at it and figured I'd ask. We have the rio grande that passes through my city but I really wouldn't want to use anything that comes out of that river. Anyway would the old dried up branches of a mullberry tree work I guess is my question


You should probably get to the tree before the woodworkers do. The wood that has been dry for months should be useable right away.

http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/U ... _Wood.html


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## BillD (May 17, 2005)

I am presently soaking some mulberry (weeping) chunks right now. They have just sunk, and I will power wash to remove the fungus and stuff growing on it then I will try it in a tank.


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## gus211 (Sep 21, 2009)

Ok that is what I wanted to hear so I guess tommorrow is gonna be a tree cutting day for me so another quick question do I have to take the bark off? Would I bleach it for a couple of days?


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

gus211 said:


> Ok that is what I wanted to hear so I guess tommorrow is gonna be a tree cutting day for me so another quick question do I have to take the bark off? Would I bleach it for a couple of days?


Don't bleach it. The bleach will soak into the wood.

If the bark does not come off easily, soak it in a tub for a few days. Although if you have some large plecos, don't worry about the tight bark. Just be sure the wood is actually dead and dry.


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## gus211 (Sep 21, 2009)

Ok thank you then thats what ill do. I'm just gonna just cut it up to the sizes I need place it in my empty 100 gallon for a couple of days and the put it in my oscar tank


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## pistolpete (Dec 28, 2009)

Some pieces of wood will not sink for a long time, even years. really depends on the species and size. You can get a slate tile, drill a hole in it with a regular carbide bit and use a stainless steel screw to attach the wood. for large pieces you just put rocks on top of the slate.


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

pistolpete said:


> Some pieces of wood will not sink for a long time, even years. really depends on the species and size. You can get a slate tile, drill a hole in it with a regular carbide bit and use a stainless steel screw to attach the wood. for large pieces you just put rocks on top of the slate.


I have some pieces done that way and they work fine. Big pieces though, I will drill some holes through or hollow out the back, and use a thick piece of slate or dense sandstone as the base.


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

If you have the tools and will, there are a number of possible ways to make your larger wood useful as shelter for fish. When I have a large piece, I hollow it out using drills, saws or chisels so that there are places to hide. Catfish especially like these as daylight comes round but others use them for hiding as well. I put at least two openings so water can circulate through otherwise you can be building a sewer.

There are lots of different thoughts on soaking in bleach. I use it all the time. It can soak in, I will agree, but then anything that goes in can come out as well. Since chlorine dissipates when exposed to air, I just soak it and then air dry before I use the wood or rock.


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## Pali (Dec 22, 2009)

Just a question

Why is it "no one" uses roots?

I see alot of people here useing drift wood and haveing problems with em floating, I personaly use mangrove roots and they don't float.

I don't know if it's only mangrove roots that don't float, but it's worth a try IMO!


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

I find mangrove roots really hard to find so make do with other roots and stumps. These are a couple of stumps I used in an old tank for experiments. These are cedar which I've hollowed out for hiding spaces. The stains are in the glass and I have found no way to remove them so sorry about the picture quality.


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

PfunMo said:


> If you have the tools and will, there are a number of possible ways to make your larger wood useful as shelter for fish. When I have a large piece, I hollow it out using drills, saws or chisels so that there are places to hide. Catfish especially like these as daylight comes round but others use them for hiding as well. I put at least two openings so water can circulate through otherwise you can be building a sewer.
> 
> There are lots of different thoughts on soaking in bleach. I use it all the time. It can soak in, I will agree, but then anything that goes in can come out as well. Since chlorine dissipates when exposed to air, I just soak it and then air dry before I use the wood or rock.


Hollowing out a large piece is not a bad idea. Some Betta species build bubble nests inside holes in driftwood, as well as the cichlids and catfish that will use them as sleeping or breeding sites.

What chlorine does is not relevant. Chlorine is a gas and so it does dissipate when completely dried, something that is not going to happen quickly inside wood. Even kiln drying wood at high temperature takes a long time to reduce the moisture content of wood.

But what chlorine does is not relevant to bleach. It is called "chlorine" bleach but the gas chlorine is not in it. Instead a liquid compound with a chlorine atom in it is dissolved in water to form bleach. Even if all the water were removed, the sodium hypochlorite would remain. For it to boil away the wood would have to reach a temperature of 101 degrees C, about 214 degrees Fahrenheit.

http://chemicalland21.com/industrialche ... LORITE.htm


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

Pali said:


> Just a question
> 
> Why is it "no one" uses roots?
> 
> ...


 Grapevine roots and stumps generally don't float eather. The more dark color the grape wood has the heavier it is. If you see wood in the bin at the pet shop that is very dark with almost white outer layers of wood, it could easily be grape wood.

Oak, specific gravity.59 to .77, is one of our densest hardwoods, except for small trees like ironwood, specific gravity 1. to 1.49, and osage apple, specific gravity .77. It could be that the roots of these are even denser than the densities of the tree.


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

Mcdaphnia
Sounds like you have insight on the technical side of bleach where mine is on the experience side of it. Rather than totally highjack here, can we look at this from both sides on a new topic? Quite possible we can trade some info that might help us out here. I'll open a new topic if that sounds okay?


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

Looking at the site referenced it seems to state what I have always believed.



> STABILITY Slowly decomposes on contact with air liberating Cl2


That would seem to say that the sodium hyperchlorite in bleach dissipates once exposed to air.


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## bntbrl (Apr 23, 2009)

Beecha nd oak wood is often used in the aquarium after it has dried. Most woodoworkers want green freshcut wood so we can treat them properly so taht we can control how fast they dry to avoid splitting. After a few days even the splitting has strted and some or most wood isnt suitable for turning at least. Some oak, like red or water oak will rot very fast and is used to make pallets. Beech I havent used personally but I have used dried oak without problems that ws cut from a tree and dried.


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## Mcdaphnia (Dec 16, 2003)

PfunMo said:


> Looking at the site referenced it seems to state what I have always believed.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That's true when you leave a cup of bleach out on the counter, or soak gravel in a bleach solution to kill snails. It explains why you can kill Physa and ramshorn snails that way, but trumpet snails survive handily in straight bleach.

Your bleach is sealed inside wood with the moisture content of the wood to help protect it. I would be pretty sure you'd have to soak it in dechlor for a good while before assuming the bleach is gone.


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## bntbrl (Apr 23, 2009)

At some point though the sodium hypochlorite would dissipate. Depending on porosity and moisture. *** never really worried too much about bleaching aquarium items. When it no longer smells like bleach I rinse it again and let it dry out thoroughly if any doubts remain. If I had the resources Id test it and see what happens. I dont have a chlorine test kit, or cheap fish to test it on. I dont know that Id test it on cheap fish even though.

I have made plenty of driftwood and always use bleach. I havent had any problems with it. Wash, bleach, rinse, rinse, dry is you question it still.


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

Before leaving this subject I would like to state something that is often ignored. Chlorine reacts with organics. Pour some bleach on a cotton shirt in the laundry and you will see what I mean. Chlorine and wood cannot coexist. Once it reacts with the wood, it is not chlorine.


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## Number6 (Mar 13, 2003)

PfunMo said:


> Once it reacts with the wood, it is not chlorine.


The chlorine is still chlorine...

E.g. when bleach hits an oxidizing agent it goes like this:
NaOCl + H2O2 Ã¢â€ â€™ H2O + NaCl + O2Ã¢â€ â€˜

What I think you mean to say is that the bleach is no longer bleach...


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## gus211 (Sep 21, 2009)

Wow I didn't know that a simple question would inspire a great conversation. In case anyone is wondering lol still haven't had time to cut down branches off that tree probably this weekend but as soon as I get it ready to go ill post some pictures, and I'm gonna go with the no bleach suggestion, and that choice is just because I have some fish that have really grown on me like my oscars and as long as their is doubt I will not put them in danger.


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## mepeterser2451 (Mar 23, 2007)

good choice not using the bleach. If it stays in the wood even if it doesnt kill the fish it will raise the pH. post some pictures of those branches. Id like to see how it looks.


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## cgmark (Aug 18, 2010)

My family owns a bunch of land that is on a river and located there is tons of cypress knees, twisted trunks and roots. It is just so far back that the only way to it is by boat when the water is high or about two hours walk on narrow trails. I think cypress likes a low ph though so that might be an issue too.


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## mightyevil (Oct 23, 2008)

A lot of home decor stores and even clothing stores carry "driftwood" at very cheap prices, huge pieces too...

If the tree doesn't work for you, visit some stores like linens n things, TJ Max, Ross, Target, etc... they might have some at low prices...

I have an aunt who got two huge pieces at TJ Max for $5 or $15 each, I can't remember but even at $15 they were well worth it and the were both very big like at least 2.5' long each.

Just an idea! :thumb:


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## gus211 (Sep 21, 2009)

I think I'm gonna have to look in stores as suggested cause I cut about 10 brnaches and a piece of trunk from the tree its been a couple of weeks since its been buckets of water and its still coloring the water a real dark brown so I'm not putting in my tank cause I don't like the black water look


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## PfunMo (Jul 30, 2009)

That can be a problem that takes time to clear. I have an old beater tank that I use for my "experiments". I put the new wood in there for a while to see what it does to the water and then at some point I move it around to other tanks where appearance is more important. I've got one brackish water fish that never knows what is coming next.


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## mightyevil (Oct 23, 2008)

You can boil the wood to release most of the tannins in it but wood is wood and it will still release tannins, just not as much... might want to try it... opcorn:


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