Driftwood

[Fiskars the Whiskers]

Hi! My lfs store doesn't sell any sort of wood products for fish tanks. I was wondering if I could get a piece of driftwood off the beach and soak it for awhile (to get salt, bugs, etc. out?) out and then put it in my tank for my pleco?

[spiny]

Hi, Fiskars!

I wouldnt use driftwood, as it will start to rot in the tank, and then use a huge share of the oxygen available.
The best roots are those that have been found in marshes/mosses and similar, that are soaked with humus acids, and because of this is preserved. They will rot at a very slowly rate, and not harm the tank and its inhabitants.
I use these Mahogany roots, and after several years in the tank, they are still iron hard in the middle. And, the surface is yummy for the catfishes.

Did you ask your LFS if they could order some roots for you? Try, and they would probably help you. Tell them your fish deserves roots, and that the plecs will sue the lfs if they wont supply them with roots! If that is not working, someone would for sure send you one, some forum'ers close by, or me for example.

Good luck!

[Fiskars the Whiskers]

Hi, Spiny! (I am really emailing you back today, I promise! )

Hmmm...I'm thinking that if my lfs ordered me roots they would end up being really, really expensive. I found out that the 16 oz. bottle of Stress Free (I think it's called) by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals is really only $4.99 in the states! It's $13.88 at my lfs!

I suppose I could go find some tree roots that have been in moss. Maybe I will just ask the lfs if it's something they can order and see if they'll give me an estimate on how much the roots would be. I really think my pleco would love me even more than he already does!

If my lfs can't order me tree roots, everybody send a root to Alaska and I'll be set! If I had tree roots coming in from all over the world, I think the post office would really wonder about me! *L*

[MackIntheBox]

I did a search and came up with some info on wood in your tank

http://www.forum.planetcatfish.com/viewtopic.php?t=403

http://www.forum.planetcatfish.com/viewtopic.php?t=4122

http://www.forum.planetcatfish.com/viewtopic.php?t=1031

I want to use wood in my tank as well, but I have to find the right shaped piece I want. Hope this helps some.

[Fiskars the Whiskers]

Thanks, Yashmack, for looking up those posts! You rock!

That first post seemed very promising. So because this driftwood I would be getting would be saltwater driftwood, the salt would act as a preservative and slow down the rotting of the wood? Also, I have a filter plus a bubbly air wand that's about five inches long. Would the oxygen in the water be enough for whatever rotting the driftwood would do and still be enough for the fish? Also, I wouldn't know what kind of wood I would be getting. It would probably be cedar or pine or hemlock (hemlock is a poison...fish, too? I don't know much about it.). Maybe alder.

I still don't think it would be a problem for me to go out and get a piece of wood from a mossy area, if it comes to that. How would I clean the dirt and stuff off of it? Boil it? Back to the tree issue, any trees to look for?

Heck, maybe I can start shipping and selling my own "Real Alaskan Driftwood for the Aquarium!" if this works out. Yashmack, I'll send you some if it works!

[MackIntheBox]

Heck, maybe I can start shipping and selling my own "Real Alaskan Driftwood for the Aquarium!" if this works out. Yashmack, I'll send you some if it works!

sounds awesome hehe

I still havent decided where im getting my wood from or what kind to use. I am still trying to decide how I want to lay out my tank. I know that I want the wood to resemble tree roots in a river bed, I want a sand and gravel mixed substrate and I want plants in the tank, live ones. As for the wood, im thinking of using some oak if I can get my hands on a good looking piece, I may even get several and cut and shape it to what I want. This is going to take me a long time, hehehe.

I have been looking at some wood around here in Texas, one that is very plentiful is mesquite, anyone know if any roblems with this wood?

as for cleaning it, strip it of bark and lichen and whatever may be on the outside of the wood itself. I would then let it soak in a bucket for a while, someone else is gonna have to pik up from here on the advice, I need to know what else to do as well ;)

[windgirl]

Sigh, I didn't know that about driftwood! Oh god why didn't I ask. I just started setting up my 20G again (no fish in it yet) and well I put in driftwood for the bushynose. Driftwood wast the only thing sold at the LFS and well it was very $$$ for a peice of wood!

Sigh, now where the heck do I get a cheapish root for a 20G?? I shop in Kitchener, ontario. Which leads to my next question ... Who all on these forums is from Kitchener, waterloo, cambridge and surounding area?

[Fiskars the Whiskers]

Hey, hey, hey! Today at my lfs I saw in the lizard section that they sell awesome-looking chunks of grapewood that have been sanded. It's all gnarly-looking and would look cool in my tank. The tag said they were sandblasted. Could I use something like this in my tank? I asked the lfs people if they could order me driftwood and we looked at their supply list. They could get me mopani wood, but it would be kind of expensive, because their price was $2.50 per pound and I'm sure they would double or triple the price at least. Not that I need a huge piece, but the grapewood was $9.97 for a huge chunk.

Someone please grant my wish and tell me grapewood would work in my tank! *crosses fingers and looks hopeful*

[BK]

hi,
fist off what type of pleco are you keeping in the tank? the harder sinking wooks like mopani, swahala, welaby, and ect. are harder for plecos to rasp on so i wouldn't reccommend they be the sole type available to panaques and other wood eaters (none of my pl*cos, including L204, rasp on my swahala except to get the algae off) or for any plec for that matter. if the drift wood is well seasoned (sunbleached) and you have a pot big enough to boil/sterilize it i would give it a try in a bucket and test the water readings (ammonia, ect.) and watch for fungus. I have found if the wood isnt too soft or spongie it usually works well and if your pleco eats it fast enough it may not even be a problem at all. Be carefull to avoid resious woods like pine. i have heard of people using grapevine and mesquite stumps/ roots in aquariums before but never with plecos. i don't imagine it would do anytihing harmful except cause a bit of fungus and an ammonia spike(depending on wood size vs. tank size) a while after being added but i'm no expert. i imagine grapevine would be hard to get to sink. plecs don't need that large a piece of wood so smaller pieces of found driftwood could be used and thereby lessen the chance of problems.


good luck
BK

[Fiskars the Whiskers]

Oooh, thanks, BK, for the reply! I'm keeping a common pleco. He has hiding spaces and stuff to suck onto now, but I think he would really like the wood.

As for sunbleaching, that's not going to be found much here, except in large pieces. Because of our (extremely rainy!) weather combined with tides, unless the driftwood found its way up closer to the top of the beach it's not going to be sunbleached at all. Would that be a problem? Should I maybe look for a piece of driftwood that has been washed up under the rooty areas towards the top of the beach and that is not too spongy? I'm just thinking with all of the rain we've had lately ( we get over 200" a year and I think most of that has come down within the past two weeks ) it's pretty much all going to be spongy and water-logged. *L* I may have to wait a bit for a good piece. Also, I'm not quite sure how to tell if the wood would be pine or not. I think most of the wood around here is resinous. Maybe? Hmmm...

So if I went with the grapewood then that wouldn't be too bad, you think? Maybe this is a newbie question, but why would there be an ammonia spike after putting the wood in? Would fungus be okay in the tank? I think my fish are healthy and active, so I guess that wouldn't be much of a problem. Maybe since a small piece of driftwood would work fine I will just go out and look this weekend for a good piece. Thank you for the great tips!

[MackIntheBox]

this is what I purchased yesterday, this and this. they look awesome, quite realistic. They are not real wood but were alot cheaper than the driftwood pieces I saw, 16 US compared to 64 US, which do you think im getting? lol

[Shane]

Yashmack,
Unfortunately most loricariids need to eat wood, so plastic driftwood defeats the purpose. Also, why would you pay for driftwood when you can pick it up at any river or beach? Same goes for stones, gravel etc. Natural stuff that you have collected will always look much better, and it is free.
-Shane

[MackIntheBox]

yes, I was aware that there are plecos that eat wood. The reason I paid for these is that I dont have an easily accessible area here for me to get any wood, all the wood around here would definitely have pestisides, pollutants, and other nasty things, I would want to head out to the deer lease next chance I get and forage there, but I dont know when that will be. I also like that they are fake, it means that my water isnt going to change color, I dont have to worry about living things in the wood or prepping it before I put it in the tank, i simply pay a few bucks and put it in the water. It has an extremely real look, I almost thought it was real until I picked it up and could feel the weight difference. If I had a pleco that relied or needed wooded to eat then I would search and find some wood. What I purchased was just to offer some hiding places for the cats. I could have put some PVC pipes in the tank, but these look better than plain white tubes

now that I think about it this may have been a litte off topic, I was a little outof it when I made the post, lol.

this is just a good alternative to the stoor bought stuff and it is fairly inexpensive as well

[Fiskars the Whiskers]

It's okay if you changed the direction of my original post, I don't mind. I'm personally quite partial to fake stuff, too. I figure when I get more knowledgable about things I might move on to living plants and such. I'm still considering real wood, but didn't end up having time to go out and look for it this weekend.

I'd love to put some rocks into my tank, but how does one know if there are heavy metals in there or not? (I read the post about knowing if there are heavy metals in the rock. Not quite sure what the answer is, though. *L*) Would something like shale or quartz be okay in the tank? I'd like to get some neat flat stuff for the USD cats to hide against. They personally *like* the PVC tubes! Bunzl has been in one off and on since yesterday. So anyone have any good ideas on rocks?

[andregurov]

After all of this talk about driftwood I had to chuckle. Here driftwood floated in on the mighty Mississippi is a dime a dozen. Just pressure blast it, drop it in a bucket with water/carbon for a week (changing daily) and make sure it doesn't smell funky - you're good to go! Rocks, however, are a rare commodity. I envy all of you that can grab rocks for free. In Louisiana, we have to pay several dollars a pound for just about any. I guess it's a good thing I went into plecos and not into African cichlids ... it would be nice to just stroll around and pick up Texas holey rock.

[kateswan]

My big pleco has a nice piece of driftwood to munch on,
but for the last couple of weeks has spent a lot of time
polishing the fibrous exterior off a coconut cave that
I put in the tank as a loach condo!

Kathy S

[Fiskars the Whiskers]

I must try this coconut sometime! Next time I see coconuts at the store I am getting one and making a mini-condo for my fish, too.

[Pectorale]

Are there any peatbogs near where you live, because you can get spectacular wood from those. Just brush it clean and boil it to kill off parasites that may hide in it and you have your foodwood. You can combine it with plastic, just make sure your pl*co's all get some fibre in their bellies for ballast. Small pieces scattered throughout your tank will do. The advantage of bogwood is that it already spent a lot of time under water and most tannine and/or other acidic stuff is usually already gone.