Another driftwood id please

8861 Views 30 Replies 12 Participants Last post by Arthurfarris, Nov 28, 2021

Brendannn209

Discussion Starter · Sep 12, 2018

3

Hi all found this site looking for some info on my driftwood. I’m simply trying to find out if it’s a safe species to put in a fish tank. Any help is appreciated

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Herb Stoops

· #2 · Sep 12, 2018

If it is real driftwood off the saltwater beaches ,I would not recommend it, it will be saturated with salt. If it is from freshwater, I would think twice as to what might be growing in the wood that would harm the fish. What ever is in the wood will keep growing and multiplying, and might be a fungus or pollutant or insects that could hatch and infest your house., who knows what. Myself I would stick to artificial trappings in a fish tank.

Welcome to the forum, and thanks for posting pictures.
Herb

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JOAT

· #3 · Sep 12, 2018

Another driftwood id? Even tho you have only one post, that implies to me you have posted here before. And if so, joined before. You only need to join once.

You can take Herb's advice (advised), or just stick one in a fish tank and see what happens. Me, I can't think of any wood I would stick in a fish tank with fish.

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hawkeye10

· #4 · Sep 12, 2018

Why would you think this??? I don't understand but I have led a sheltered life. :wink:

"Quote"

Another driftwood id? Even tho you have only one post, that implies to me you have posted here before. And if so, joined before. You only need to join once.

Herb Stoops

· #5 · Sep 12, 2018

JOAT said:
Another driftwood id? Even tho you have only one post, that implies to me you have posted here before. And if so, joined before. You only need to join once.

I had the same thought, I do remember awhile back a question similar to this of identifying a piece of driftwood. It is almost impossible to identify drift wood from a picture because it all looks the same, washed out and discolored, and distorted grain. It has to be exposed to raw natural wood by shaving and sawing both lengthwise and cross grain to reach a reasonable conclusion as to what it might be.

In any event I would not myself put any in a fish tank with fish, they are very sensitive to anything in the water.

A similar thing happened to us years ago, my wife bought this Norfolk Pine plant from the big box store at the end of the season on sale. It was about 3' tall and came in a large pot. I made a dolly to put under it and we set it in the living room.

We had it a year or so , and we started to find 3" long red centipedes around the house. Then one day as I was watering the tree the soil started moving and there was hundreds of centipedes of all sizes coming out of the soil.
I immediately removed the potted tree to the patio and sprayed it with a bug killer. it killed the insects and the tree.
My point is that what ever is brought into the house carries what ever in on it outside.
Herb

DaninVan

· #6 · Sep 12, 2018

Hey, Brenda; I've done that and never had a problem...didn't care about the species of wood as long as it wasn't Cedar. And that was just erring on the side of caution. What you do need to do is let the wood wash naturally for a loooong time!
Leaving it in a 5 gal or preferably larger pail/barrel, out in the rain over the Winter should do it. Avoid any chemical cleaners!!! If you happened to have a fast moving stream on your property, that'd be perfect; in fact that's exactly where I went to find my driftwood in the first place.
Salt is not a bad thing in a freshwater tank, in very slight concentrations.
If you're still concerned about organisms, your local aquarium shop has disinfectants, for want of a better word.
Personally Iwouldn't bother; wood is naturally antibacterial.
I believe the driftwood sold for tanks has been steam treated, but how on earth could you do that at home?
Any creepy crawlies still in the wood are fish food...

DaninVan

· #7 · Sep 12, 2018

Hi, again; I went looking for pics of natural driftwood, and found this article...
https://pethelpful.com/fish-aquariums/Driftwood-In-Aquariums

I'd forgotten all about the tannin thing.
Really good info in that article.

Brendannn209

Discussion Starter · #8 · Sep 12, 2018

Thanks for the positive help guys and to the guy thinking I’m making multiple accounts to ask the same question that’s just dumb. I googled driftwood identification and this site came up so I thought you guys might be able to help. I would simply ask again not make another account

DaninVan

· #9 · Sep 12, 2018

Brendannn209 said:
Thanks for the positive help guys and to the guy thinking I’m making multiple accounts to ask the same question that’s just dumb. I googled driftwood identification and this site came up so I thought you guys might be able to help. I would simply ask again not make another account

Brenda; this thing about identifying driftwood comes up here once in a while. Theo's reaction wasn't intended to be offensive.
Here's the thing about 'driftwood'; it has no bark (likely), no, flowers, no fruit, and no tree or bush form. All or some of the aforementioned characteristics are needed for a casual ident. A wood lab would look at cell structure, and DNA for positive ID; and you could go that route, but I'm guessing that it wouldn't be inexpensive!
For most purposes in woodworking, driftwood is just that. Here in the Pacific North West, beach driftwood has been bleached by the sun, soaked in salt water and scoured by sand; eventually it's reduced by nature to organic grit, just part of the beach environment.
I know some guys in my area salvage driftwood logs for firewood...no way in Hell would I let my chainsaw anywhere near that sand encrusted stuff! :surprise:

DaninVan

· #10 · Sep 12, 2018

Sorry; forgot to say I like your choice of driftwood! How big is your tank(s)?

Brendannn209

Discussion Starter · #11 · Sep 17, 2018

At the moment my biggest tank is only a 29 but I live in an apartment with unknowing landlords so I can’t go huge yet

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DaninVan

· #12 · Sep 17, 2018

Ha! As a former landlord, you're busted!

Cherryville Chuck

· #13 · Sep 17, 2018

Brendann the comment made about being a member under two user names is because we occasionally get spammers and trolls who do just that. You are the second person very recently to request a driftwood ID and the circumstances were extremely similar so it was just a bit suspicious but no worries. Welcome to the forum.

I was a logger in BC for 25 years and near the end of that time I worked for the BC Forest Service and needed to have a log scaler's license. This required that I be able to identify the local log species just by looking at the wood and I was quite good at that after looking at them while logging all the years earlier. Despite that knowledge there is only one local tree species that I can identify as driftwood and that is red cedar. Some of the others I might be able to identify if I cut an end off and the water, sun, and aging process hasn't altered the wood too much from the original state. As Dan's article said, don't use any softwoods. You might be able to tell if is a softwood by carving a decent sized chip out of it and smelling it to see if you get anything that resembles a Pine Sol smell. You might try boiling a small piece too and see if you get that smell that way. Boiling it would be more likely to release the resins inherent in conifers. If not then it probably is okay to use after following the rest of the instructions in the article.

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Stick486

· #14 · Sep 17, 2018

https://www.aquariumspace.com/threads/how-to-sterilize-driftwood.4060/

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DaninVan

· #15 · Sep 17, 2018

Great link, Stick! Lots of good stuff in there as well as the comments.
I was thinking about the "bleach" part of the article, and it occurred to me that an excellent alternative would be H2O2...Hydrogen peroxide.
You can get it from the Hydroponics supply shops in 30% solution...that is too potent. A 1:10 dilution rate would give you pretty close to the drugstore stuff (3.5%).
Set up a narrow trough with plastic sheeting and soak the driftwood overnight. Then do the clean water washing.
Ain't nuthin' going to survive that!

Do NOT get it on your skin at the undiluted rate! You will not be happy.

Stick486

· #16 · Sep 17, 2018

DaninVan said:
Great link, Stick! Lots of good stuff in there as well as the comments.
I was thinking about the "bleach" part of the article, and it occurred to me that an excellent alternative would be H2O2...Hydrogen peroxide.
You can get it from the Hydroponics supply shops in 30% solution...that is too potent. A 1:10 dilution rate would give you pretty close to the drugstore stuff (3.5%).
Set up a narrow trough with plastic sheeting and soak the driftwood overnight. Then do the clean water washing.
Ain't nuthin' going to survive that!

Do NOT get it on your skin at the undiluted rate! You will not be happy.

beauty supply outlets have up to 50% strength...

DaninVan

· #17 · Sep 17, 2018

The 30% stuff is around $25Cdn for 4 liters. That makes a lot of drugstore type solution.
Best part is after you're finished with it you water it down to about 1% and use it in your garden.

Stick486

· #18 · Sep 17, 2018

50% can be had in 250ML sizes through up to 4L

DaninVan

· #19 · Sep 17, 2018

Don't quote me on this, but I don't think you can buy the 50% up here. There was a major rethink, post 9/11, and what I heard was that there were security concerns about H2O2 being available as an ingredient for explosives.
At that time the hydroponic concentrate was being sold at a 35% rate, then they removed it and subbed the lower concentrate. But then it's Canada, any weirdness is possible...

JOAT

· #20 · Sep 17, 2018

Stick486 said:
beauty supply outlets have up to 50% strength...

Hmm, beauty supply outlets? And just 'why' is it you would know about beauty supply outlets?

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