Driftwood Bonanza

[Shane]

Took the family to spend the day swimming in Chesapeake Bay. We went to a park in Leesylvania, Virginia for the first time. The park was originally the plantation of Robert E. Lee's grandparents.
Came across this pile of driftwood and managed to find four nice big pieces that came home with me. Also collected four spp of aquatic plant that I brought home to experiment with.
-Shane

[Viktor Jarikov]

Sweet truck loads of DW! Looks like Virginian manzanita ;)

[bekateen]

Sweet truck loads of DW! Looks like Virginian manzanita ;)

Or a funeral pyre... Check inside for a Viking or Darth Vader.

I imagine Shane will have a lot of happy plecos for quite some time.

[Jools]

Great work! I regret now every penny I spent on bigoted, there is so much value and fun in sourcing your own.

Jools

[Martin S]

...I spent on bigoted...

Autocorrect?

[nvcichlids]

...I spent on bigoted...

Autocorrect?

[Viktor Jarikov]

Who'd blame yah! Not only do I hate to spend money on the bigoted, I hate to spend time too.

But seriously, Jools is 1000x right. The reward is incomparable when doing your own hunting and (legal) collecting in the nature. Both learning wise and satisfaction wise. Just blows everything out of the water versus going to the store... But there isn't always time. And the couch + laptop combo is so inviting, such a sweet-voiced Siren...

[Jools]

Duh,sorry, of course I meant bogwood. Just really wanted to reply to Shane's post but did it in a rush getting on a plane. I should know better...

Jools

[Shane]

The really nice thing about finding a pile that big is that I could sort through a lot of pieces to find ones that had good shape and were aged just right (not so old the wood is soft). Predominant trees in this area are hardwoods (oak, beech, elm) so that helps too.

Also for Jools, Henry "Lighthorse" Lee was born in Dumfries, Colony of Virginia.
-Shane

[Shane]

One of the pieces. Each brick is 12 inches (30cm) for scale so this piece is about 4 feet long. Should be a really nice center piece in a four foot tank.
-Shane

[TwoTankAmin]

@Shane

I am curious how you determine that wood found in nature like this is safe. I have had a bad experience with collected wood having been polluted. Fortunately, this was evident during pre-soaking and rinsing. Given the potential for contamination in the water from by oil/gas/etc. Airborne engine exhaust or other outdoor chemicals, especially stray fertilizer or pest killing sprays etc. are also a potential threat.

That wood pile looks like it has some nice looking pieces, but it would make me nervous using it unless I was absolutely certain is was safe. Is there any way you test it before putting it into a tank with fish?

[Viktor Jarikov]

Valid concerns I'd be having too, along with embedded parasites, etc.

The worst kinds are the ones that successfully pass short-term test with feeder fish, minnows, etc. in a plastic tub but then end up poisoning / affecting your tank.

[Shane]

I have collected my own driftwood all over the place. My tanks are full of pieces I have collected in South America, Africa, and the U.S. In over 20 years of doing this I have never once had a bad experience. I only collect from clean environments (it must be safe to swim and eat the fish). I always choose hardwoods, be they temperate or tropical, and I test the wood to ensure it has not already gone too soft.
The wood is then washed off with a hose and left in direct sun for a week. Mainly to make sure algae, snails, etc die off. Larger pieces are then soaked outdoors. Smaller pieces are often run through the dishwasher (no soap obviously) before being soaked for several weeks in a bucket.
I collect all my own driftwood, substrate, stones, leaves, etc for aquascaping. I see collecting aquarium decor in nature as similar to collecting my own fishes. Each piece has its own story. A giant piece of driftwood I carried out of the Orinoco delta and another favorite piece of ironwood found on safari in South Africa. The substrate in my Victoria tank is actual substrate I collected from the lake at Entebbe, Uganda and brought home.
I can't say what is right or wrong for anyone else, but I think many aquarists are overly fearful of using natural materials they find. Just be smart about it and take the time to properly select and prepare each piece.
-Shane

[Viktor Jarikov]

Thank you, Shane. Could you, please, elaborate on the softness test? How would I replicate it? (I don't mean softwood versus hardwood.)

[Shane]

Viktor,
Just push your thumbnail into the wood. If the wood is soft, or has any give to it, leave it alone. The wood should be hard enough that your thumbnail can not sink in and leaves no mark on the wood.
-Shane

[bekateen]

Shane and Viktor,

What are the basic concerns regarding soft (capable of being punctured with a fingernail) wood? Indeed, I naturally look for solid (firm) wood when I collect pieces in the wild, but I've never considered the softness to be a bad thing, other than it might allow environmental chemicals to soak into the wood (as Viktor was concerned about above)... and if I suspect the environment is polluted (beyond what I'd consider acceptable), then I leave the piece behind.

Even in my tanks, some of the wood pieces eventually get rotten on their outer surface and I can scratch or poke into the wood with my fingernail. But I always thought that might be a good thing, because it would mean the wood is easier for plecos (especially babies) to scrape and eat. When I get a piece of wood in any of my non-pleco tanks (i.e, cory tanks), I transfer the wood to a pleco tank, and within a couple of days the soft outer layers are gone (eaten/scraped off) and the wood is reduced down to its harder inner core.

Is this a risky practice on my part?

Thanks, Eric

[Shane]

Eric,
I do not think it is risky. I do the hardness test for three main reasons 1) Harder woods are denser and heavier and thus sink faster 2) The pieces have not started to decay and tend to last much longer 3) They hold up better against plecos over the years.

I have collected softer woods as food for Panaque and seen them entirely eaten over a few years. I also have large really hard pieces collected in Venezuela in 2000 that still look great in my tanks after 17 years of being grazed on by plecos.

I guess this is the difference between collecting wood as food and collecting big show pieces that will last many years.
-Shane

[bekateen]

Thanks for that perspective, Shane.

Cheers, Eric

[Jools]

Just thinking about risk. When you buy aquarium wood in the shop,you don't actually know where it comes from, you don't know how sustainability harvested it is, how is it shipped, what pollution is it exposed to in transit and in the shop. Actually, all you've really got is some sort of comfort that the shop wouldn't sell you something that isn't good for your fish. These are often the same people who will sell you a common pleco or baby

Pangasius

.

With wood I collect in the forest or stream, I know all of this backstory. Irrespective of financial cost, the emotional cost and risk is, for me, lower.

Jools

[EdWalker]

I've been collecting driftwood from the Potomac (Piscataway Park in Maryland) for the last few months now and have some gorgeous (at least to me) pieces that I would love to put in my tanks.

I've boiled and boiled and boiled these pieces and I guess I'm afraid to take the next step and actually put them in. I do notice that each time I spray them off with water there are little chunks that fall off. I'm sure that is a sign of decay and I'm fearful that that will hurt my fish. Also, when I leave them out of water for a few days they'll start getting this whitish looking fungus(??) on them. Each time I boil them it boils away but comes back each time. Any input you have for such a situation would be greatly appreciated if you care to give any. Thanks- Steven

[Jools]

Steven, I am sure it will be fine, many fish will eat the "fungus"; in fact they relish it. What sort of fish are you going to have with the wood?

Jools

[EdWalker]

I have 4 plecos in my 55 gallon. 1 albino bristlenose, 1 bristlenose, 1 rubber lip, and 1 clown pleco

There are also 6 corydoras, 2 SA bumblebees, 3 pictus, and a striped raphael.

[Jools]

Those plecos will thank you for that unsterilised wood. Post pics!

Jools

[EdWalker]

Okay, I dropped the pieces that in last night and the Albino immediately had to go check them out. When I got up this morning the regular bristlenose was giving them a try. The rubber lip is still doing his regular "whatever, leave me alone" thing and the clown is chilling, as he always does, underneath the piece of mopani I tossed in there a month or two back. The cories like the new wood as well.

I'll give them all a few days to check these pieces out and then I'll post some good pics up of them Thanks for all of your help!

[TwoTankAmin]

I have used a lot of cyprus. Its quite soft and in 10 yeras it will be gone. It needs to be weighted to stay down until it waterlogs well and even after with many pieces. But it sure looks pretty.

[bekateen]

I have... a lot of cyprus... it sure looks pretty.

Wow, that really does look cool!

I have a few "unknown" pieces of driftwood (literally driftwood, collected along the Washington oceanic coast) that have not sunk in over a year of floating in the tank. None-the-less, the plecos (

L397

and

Peckoltia compta

are the only plecos in the tank) are eating it, and it is slowly getting whittled down, although still floating.

My most beautiful wood is Manzanita. It's not "driftwood" per se, it's just "wood"... (I have wild {natural, not planted} Manzanita trees growing on my property so I can harvest wood whenever I please)...When my

clown pleco

s and L397 do their thing, chewing on the surface, it brings out amazing grain. But it doesn't form grooves like your wood does, TTA... I imagine that's because the Manzanita wood is so dense. Oh, I guess we can't have it both ways.

Cheers, Eric

[Shane]

Nearly all "driftwood" sold commercially has never been in the water. Mopani grows in dry climates in southern Africa and its density is actually a defense against termites.

Manzanita costs a fortune out here on the east coast. Amazes me as in my youth we burned it in massive amounts in California when we would clear a pasture.
-Shane