Ocean Drift wood

Christople

Hi I have a couple of pieces of drift wood from the ocean and if I boil them well could I put the in my fish tank. It is freshwater and all of the fish I have are in my signature And my main concern is changing the params of the water. If not I will just buy all of it from the wet spot and get it there.

Christople

No one?

SinCrisis

Seriously? you expect an answer in the middle of the night? haha,

anyway, i would avoid using it if its been in the ocean, even if you boil it, its unlikely it will get all the salt out unless the wood is very thin and branch-like. I dont think its worth the risk.

Thoth

^ +1

middle of the night is all relative with an international community

SinCrisis

Very true thoth, it is an international forum

However, it seems a lot of the community here is in north america at least in the freshwater section. However, im just noticing that the time stamps is +4 hrs from here which means the stamps are for iceland time? I find that most of the responses to questions are answered when its 9am-around 11pm eastern time (UTC-5).

Where are you located christople?


One other thing about driftwood by the sea, even if the wood was not soaked in salt, it has probably absorbed a lot of salt from the sea air. Overall, its just risky using it. However, if you really like it, you can boil it, scrub it down real good, and dunk it in a big bucket for a few weeks and see if it changes the water parameters of the water in the bucket, or if the salinity goes up. If it changes, then the wood is no good, if not, then the risk is reduced for tank usage.

Christople

I live in oregon so about half a day ahead of you sincris.

SinCrisis

by half a day ahead you mean 3 hrs behind?

So did you test your wood from the sea?

Christople

No I really don't want to try it because I don't have a api master test it and mom is having a hard time letting me get 30 dollars worth of not fish.

SinCrisis

Unfortunate, however, usually you could find good pieces just out in the woods or park, just make sure to dry them properly.

Christople

I could but some parks aren't wood filled.