Sunken river branches-use bleach?

[whitewaves]

Today I gathered an armload of oak branches from the sandy bottom of the Wisconsin River. There was algae on the surface of the water and some got on the wood. I used a powerwasher to clean the pieces and I have them soaking in tubs outside. The pieces are too big to boil. I've read on the internet to add bleach to the water - is that really OK? If so, what ratio? I don't know what kind of algae was on the surface but if it was blue green algae, will bleach kill that too?

Thanks!!

[Bas Pels]

bleach kills everything, green, red, black and blue algea amongst them

I would never use bleach on anything I intend to put into a tank. This is, because bleach is chemically very reactive, and it can, any very likely will, react with the substrate, such as wood. This will result in ne, possably toxic, chemicals

Boiling only destroys the wood structure, resulting in faster decay. Also not advisable

You can brush any dirt away, and then the wood may be soaked. I would just put it in the tank

[whitewaves]

THANK YOU So much for the reply!! I did as you said!

[Richard B]

A bit late but i'll chip in.....i also would never, ever use bleach to clean anything going into a tank. I would want to clean stuff as much as possible though, soaking in hot water, steaming it, baking it & scrubbing are all things i'd do before it went anywhere near any of my fish.

[medaka]

Two other alternatives.
1) microwave, just make sure that your better half is out, and you don't leave it on too long as it can burn from the inside out.
&
2) hydrogen peroxide, always a good steraliser, and leaves no residue behind

[Mike_Noren]

Sun-drying the wood thoroughly, or heating it to 40-70 degrees Celsius for a couple of hours, or freezing it for 24 hours, will sterilize it.

If you want to use chemicals, you could make a strong salt-brine solution and immerse the wood in that for several hours, then rinse it thoroughly. Will kill almost anything.
Bleach, hydrogen peroxide, and potassium permanganate are effective at killing most things, but will discolor the wood. The bleach will also weaken the wood, and will require thorough and repeated rinsing afterwards, making it less suitable, but when the wood no longer smells of chlorine it's safe.

[apistomaster]

I recently collected water logged sticks, stems and bark from a pristine mountain river for use in my SA Dwarf Cichlid aquariums.
I just rinsed them off in the sink using a colander and put them in my tanks.

There is very little to fear from these materials unless the water is badly polluted with industrial or agricultural chemicals, in which case, I wouldn't consider using materials from any polluted waters.
The chances of introducing a fish disease is minuscule and if you merely rinse the materials only very small insect larvae may remain among the materials and these are quickly eaten by many fish.

Any method involving drying will cause a temporary floating which, in my case, was not what I wanted the collected materials to do.
I have been using water logged wood and scraps forever in my aquariums and have only had positive results. This is no more hazardous to your fish than collecting live Daphnia for food. Actually less hazardous since Daphnia come from ponds instead of flowing water and are more likely to introduce miscellaneous pests like Hydra or and occasional damsel or dragon fly larvae.