Natural Tank Setup (Questions & suggestions)

TJD911 · Post by **TJD911** » 29 Oct 2007, 23:39

im seeing all of these tanks imitating a nice and natural habitat. i already kno what plants i should use, but my mane focus is on wood. I would like to kno which woods are safe to add to the tank.
-Is pine or poplar safe? If so i can make some accesories for the tank and hiding spots for my pimelodus blochii(four line).

George · Post by **George** » 31 Oct 2007, 12:58

Pine is not good and I would think Poplar is too soft. Given time Pine will kill your fish. Turpentine can be made from Pine. You want to use hard woods. I have heard that Birch and Ash are good woods in the aquarium. I would think Oak and Maple might be OK too. Maples are not all the same though so you might want to be careful there. Whatever you use is going to have to be waterlogged to sink. Boiling to break the cell walls will help but it might take awhile.

Your best bet is to bight the bullet and pay for the commercially available aquarium ready stuff.

George

MatsP · Post by **MatsP** » 31 Oct 2007, 13:34

I seem to remember that Ash is unsuitable for fish [it's toxic to fish] - but I can't find a reference of that right now.

Oak, maple, cherry, apple and most other decorative trees you can find are fine.

As stated, most wood takes a long time to waterlog enough to sink.

If the wood is intended purely as decorations, try to find HARD woods, whilst if you have woodeating Pleco's you may prefer softer woods [as they will scrape off any soft stuff anyways].

--
Mats

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 31 Oct 2007, 13:34

Do a forum search.

There must be a hundred threads on what woods are safe to use in aquaria.

apistomaster · Post by **apistomaster** » 31 Oct 2007, 15:03

racoll wrote:Do a forum search.

There must be a hundred threads on what woods are safe to use in aquaria.

racoll is quite correct.
I do want to say that a blanket statement that pine wood or that of other conifers is unsafe is not completely correct.
I and many others who live in the Temperate zones can find ancient pieces of other coniferous woods long embedded in river sand and gravel bars which is safe to use. It is a soft wood by definition but those pieces found in the old gravel/sand bars can be free of noxious substances due to perhaps centuries of exposure and bacterial action and tend to be denser parts of these trees yet soft enough for fish like Panaques that eat wood. I don't deliberately seek out this type of wood but when I find an interesting piece of any old wood embedded in the river bars I don't hesitate to use it.

Richard B · Post by **Richard B** » 21 Nov 2007, 13:44

Not to mention beech as a very suitable wood - & also the leaves if you are that way inclined