Little help

[alpha]

Hi,
I found this bog wood on the beach and I was wondering if anybody can help me identify what kind of wood is and if is ok to put it in my fish tank.
Thank you.




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[MatsP]

Looks like some sort of Yew or Cypress type tree - not sure, but the bark resembles something like that. I wouldn't use it in an aquarium.

--
Mats

[Richard B]

I agree with Mats that I wouldn't use it.

The cross section looks fresh (freshly cut) & suggests softwood as opposed to hardwood ie it is 'coniferous' & this is backed up by the fibrous nature of the root system.

[wayne the pain]

Looks like Red Birch to me

[racoll]

What does the exposed wood smell like? That may give you an indication of whether it's coniferous or not.

[dw1305]

Hi all,

What does the exposed wood smell like? That may give you an indication of whether it's coniferous or not.

Good idea, I'm with Racoll and RichardB and I'm pretty sure it is coniferous and unsuitable too, if you look at width of the growth rings you can see it has grown really quickly.

Because of the growth rate, yellow colour (and because you are in Devon?) my suggestion would be Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa), which is really commonly planted by the sea in the S & W of the UK, or its hybrid progeny Leyland Cypress (Cupressus x leylandii syn. XCupressocyparis leylandii)

cheers Darrel

[alpha]

Hi,
Thank you all for your replies.
I smelled it and it doesn't look like coniferous but I don't know how long it stayed in the ocean and on the beach(Devon) and if this affected his properties.
To bad,because it is a very interesting piece of wood and fits very good in my fish tank.

[MatsP]

You could alwys drill a hole somewhere, and smell that. I have not seen freshly cut Leylandi, but I was sort of thingking something along those lines when I saw it.

--
Mats

[Jools]

I've had the pleasure of removing dozens of small to medium sized leylandii from the planet and I'm pretty sure it's not that. The bark is too tight to the wood, the wood is too dark and the roots don't look right to my untrained eye. In my experience, the bark of coniferous trees (I've got in the garden, so about 5 species) separates from the wood more quickly than in deciduous trees.

Any chance you could take a well light / in focus shot of the bark?

Jools

[panaque]

If I had to hazard a guess I'd say beech. I agree with jools that the bark does not look like leylandii. When I have a piece of wood that I'm not sure about I always put it in a tub of water outside and add things like Daphnia and snails to start with to see whether anything in the wood kills them.

[alpha]

Hi,
I put a few small bits in a 5 l bottle with some ramshorn snails and it doesn't seem to bother them.They stay on wood without any problem.
I will try to take some clear shots of the bark.Hope these photo helps more:






[/img]
Thank you all for your replies.

[dw1305]

Hi all,
I'm still betting on coniferous, but with the pictures of the bark I think it may be a Cherry (Prunus spp.), you can see "prominent horizontal lenticels", and you normally get those on woody Rosaceae. Cherry or Plum wood is also quite coloured.

This is Prunus bark for comparison.


cheers Darrel