# filling wood with concrete safe ?



## Rob1984 (Jan 4, 2012)

So I have piece of driftwood here I can't get to sink, so I was thinking of using a hole saw and drill holes in each end of the wood and filling it hryodraulic cement will that be safe for my tank ?? And the piece I drill out with be cut and use just a small thin piece siliconed or aqaurium glue'd in the end to hide the concrete and such


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## somefish (Sep 2, 2012)

The way I do it , is to drill and screw (with SS screws) a piece of slate to the bottom of the driftwood . A slate tile from the big box store is just the thing .
The slate is pretty soft and drills very easily , even with a regular twist drill - A masonry drill bit works best , though .
Bury the slate in the substrate and you'd never know it was there .

You can also drill a couple holes in the slate , and then fasten the wood down with black cable ties , if there's no place to drive a screw .

I've sunk some really big pieces of wood this way .

Tom


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## Rob1984 (Jan 4, 2012)

Hmmm, well this piece is odd as I wanna sit it in the tank a certain way so a few live plants latch onto a couple spots near the one end, so if I only attach slate witha zip tie to one end I think the other end up float up rather then look like it resting on a rock or so


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## Koteckn (May 16, 2012)

Sometimes driftwood can take weeks/months to finally sink naturally. I've been floating a 10" stump for the past 6 weeks and it finally is submerged. It still has some sinking to do though as it is still very light once submerged and moves around by itself.

If you want it to sit a certain way and there is no other way around it, you'll have to wait it out. Trust me, I know it stinks waiting weeks to add a crucial decoration to your tank to make it look the way you want it.

Howie


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## Rob1984 (Jan 4, 2012)

**** lmao, well it sitting in my laundry room sink and every few hrs I let water out and re fill with crazy hot water, have a stone on top to hold it under too... Thought that was better then floating around in my tank lol, this piece has been in there since mid summer now


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## somefish (Sep 2, 2012)

Rob1984 said:


> Hmmm, well this piece is odd as I wanna sit it in the tank a certain way so a few live plants latch onto a couple spots near the one end, so if I only attach slate witha zip tie to one end I think the other end up float up rather then look like it resting on a rock or so


Screwing it to slate works well for just this kind of situation - You could make a piece that looks like a deer antler stay down , by just fastening the bottom end .

Set the piece on a table , and eyeball the angle you want it to set at .
Then take a marker , and trace a line around the bottom , parallel to the table , where it's touching the table . 
Mark just high enough , so you are marking a place to cut off , to make a little flat spot on the bottom of your wood . 
Cut the waste part off , screw the flat spot to your slate , and Bob's-Your-Uncle :~) 
If you get it right , it'll be sitting at the exact angle you were holding it .

It works for me .
Tom


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## Rob1984 (Jan 4, 2012)

Ya that would work great all though the end I want to screw or zip tie to a piece of flat rock (fagstone) has a few off branchs/roots coming off it that I'd lose in cutting a section off...

Also why I was see'in about using hole saws for drilling holes and then filling with hydrualic cement and then the part that gets drilled out with the hole saw cut just a 1/2" piece off the end and use it as a plug to hide the cement either with silicone or aquarium glue


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## Tpb55 (Jun 12, 2012)

You can fill it with concrete just be aware that the concrete will need to cure as it raise your ph when it is new. I used to make Reef rocks using concrete, crushed coral and oyster shell. Then we soak the rock doing water changes every other day until the Ph Stablized. A 5-10 lb rock would take 30-60 days to stabilized


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## Rob1984 (Jan 4, 2012)

Tpb55 said:


> You can fill it with concrete just be aware that the concrete will need to cure as it raise your ph when it is new. I used to make Reef rocks using concrete, crushed coral and oyster shell. Then we soak the rock doing water changes every other day until the Ph Stablized. A 5-10 lb rock would take 30-60 days to stabilized


this cement is hydrauclic cement, and it drys within minutes this kind... now curing ? think it says 24hrs to cure and get rock hard....this is the type of cement you would use to fix a leak/crack in your foundation that has water running out of it and etc.... and i think id only have to add at most 1lb 1/2lb on each end of the wood


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Cement needs to cure before you put it in the tank because it raises the PH in the water, not just to let it get hard.


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## Rob1984 (Jan 4, 2012)

fusion said:


> Cement needs to cure before you put it in the tank because it raises the PH in the water, not just to let it get hard.


well how long would it need to sit for to "cure"


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## fusion (Jun 21, 2012)

Tpb55 said:


> You can fill it with concrete just be aware that the concrete will need to cure as it raise your ph when it is new. I used to make Reef rocks using concrete, crushed coral and oyster shell. Then we soak the rock doing water changes every other day until the Ph Stablized. A 5-10 lb rock would take 30-60 days to stabilized


Never done it but seems like Tpb55 has ^^^^^^^^


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