how long to boil

willow

hay guys,
if i were to boil my wood,how long do you think
i would need to do it for.
thanks. :)

beunme

i didnt boil wood i DID boil sum gravel,,2 five galon buckets worth..seen on the net to boil it for a hour..we made stone soup most of the night lol,,,the gravel stunk in the tank turned the water brown and really foul odor..after boiling it it seems fine..got it in 2 tanks now and all ok they been up n runnin awhile now..boiled all the decorations while i was at it.hope this helps ya

tophat665

Boil it until the water turns to tea. Change the water. Boil it some more. Repeat until the water gets apple juice color at the darkest.

(Course, the last driftwood I used was big enough I would have had to boil it in a bathtub, so I just threw it in the well before the fish and let it leach through a couple of water changes.)

willow

thanks,
its just that i'm a bit fed up with the tanned look now,
short of that i guess the other option is to remove it,there are not plecos
in there it's just for decoration.
:)

Amphitrite

Last time I got some new bogwood I boiled it for fifteen minutes every day for a week, and each night before going to bed I put it in a fresh bucket of boiling water.

When I added it to the tank it still leeched a bit, but nothing too bad.

jeaninel

I did the same as Tophat on my first piece of wood. It was small enough to fit in a large pot to boil on the stove.

I am currently soaking a second piece for my 10 gallon but it is too big to boil. I have it soaking it in a 5 gallon bucket of the hottest water I can get. When the water gets cool I pour it out and refill with hot water again and let it soak, rinse and repeat.

willow

cheers guys,
tomorrow is another day,so maybe a little re-aquascape.
i don't want this tank to go back to the tank of doom,
so i don't want to fiddle too much.
:)

MKSII

My pieces are too big to be boiled, so I have them soaking in a giant tote in the garage. For the first couple days I just changed the water. It's been in there for a good week now and it might have a slight tint to it, but nothing major. Three pieces in there too.

My other 2 pieces in my 75 I did the same thing and it never has changed the color of the aquarium water.

willow

thanks. :)

caferacermike

I have large pieces of driftwood from S. America in my pleco tank. You'd think 125g over 4 years would do it. Nope. You'll always get tannins. Just run carbon in your filters. It will do a good job of keeping the water clearer until the next water change. I do 100g water change once a month to rid myself of the yellowed look. I don't mind it much as it's a lot more natural in the wild for the water to be dark (for these fish) than clear.