# driftwood or life raft



## HONDO (May 4, 2008)

so i just started setting up my new 75 gallon tank and have an awesome piece of driftwood which is very large. i thought it would sink but after filling the tank it most certainly does not. its hard to even puish it down to the botom. it sticks out the top so i cant even put my lid or lights on.

can someone please give me some advice or some idea how to anchor this beast? i have sand substrate and eggrate under if that makes a difference.

thank you.


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## D-007 (Jan 3, 2008)

Maybe you could screw it/silicone it to some slate and bury the slate under the sand but above the eggcrate?


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## booba5 (May 3, 2008)

you have to water logg it first, only takes a few days, just fill a bucket, put it in there, and put something heavy on it to weight it down. Did you boil the wood at all? Tannins are not your friend


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## HONDO (May 4, 2008)

heres what i did. its a huge piece so i bought a trash can and put the wood in. i got the tow straps from my truck and strapped it down. the trash can is in the shower and the wood is in there soaking so next week while i am at the beach it will hopefully waterlog and sink when i put it in the aquarium.

fingers crossed, wish me luck.


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## Sick-Lid-4-Life (Mar 22, 2008)

That should work fine. Good luck.


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## booba5 (May 3, 2008)

exactly how it should be done, very nice work. make sure you smell NO bleach on it before you put it in the tank


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## F8LBITEva (Nov 9, 2007)

if you are keeping a higher PH in your tank, the wood will bring it down no matter what you do. I had to get rid of a really nice piece I had because of that.


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## PsYcHoTiC_MaDmAn (Dec 26, 2005)

F8LBITEva said:


> if you are keeping a higher PH in your tank, the wood will bring it down no matter what you do. I had to get rid of a really nice piece I had because of that.


not completely true.

wood leaches tannins, these are acidic and therefore will lower the pH, however in a hard water tank you will also (generally) have a high level of carbonate hardness (KH). KH buffers the water making it more alkaline, these will bind with acidic compounds stopping it from lowering the pH.

in the most tanks, there will be enough KH to stop the wood from dramatically effecting pH


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## Guest (Jun 28, 2008)

booba5 said:


> exactly how it should be done, very nice work. make sure you smell NO bleach on it before you put it in the tank


Where did you get bleach from? He didn't say he was using bleach...

~Ed


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## booba5 (May 3, 2008)

Doh, Beach and i thought he said Bleach


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## Dno (May 13, 2008)

I have 2 really nice pieces of gum tree branches in my tank and to water log them n clean them i soaked them in a bath for about a week with bricks on them to waterlog them. then i took them out (cleaned the bath because it turned it a tea colour) n cleaned off all the bark, if its soaked enought water the bark should peal off like playdoh. then i put it back in the bath till it had stopped leaching n didnt need bricks to hold them down.

Cheers Dno.


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## HONDO (May 4, 2008)

cool. i hope it works. i could not believe how tough it was to even push the piece to the bottom. i will let everyone know how it works out.


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