PlanetCatfish.com

I typically use store-bought driftwood in my tanks, for safety reasons, but as the size and number of tanks grows I find that I don't like a lot of what the stores sell these days and it's expensive. I live in the mountains on wooded property. I have plenty of oak and maple trees to harvest from, but I'm not sure about safety. I did place an oak branch in one tank two weeks ago. It was dead and dry, but it already looks like it may be molding....covered with small black spots. I can see from numerous photos that many hobbiests use "natural" wood, but I'm unsure of what's safe or how to prepare it before I place it in my tanks......Experience and feed-back with this issue would be MUCH appreciated!!

There are only a few northern hemisphere trees/woods that don't work well in aquariums.

I believe Ash is one of those - there was a discussion about it in the past. [There's quite a few discussions on "natural wood in fish-tanks".]

Maple and oak are both fine. I've got cherry tree in my tank, as well as willow. Both works fine.

Bamboo is another natural material.

In all cases, soak until it's properly waterlogged, and if in doubt, boil it to "kill" any bad stuff that may cause problems.

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Mats