# wood



## creep (Nov 3, 2010)

anyone gather wood from the shores of the lake? 

what do you do before you put it in your tanks?

Thanks


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## Pruss (Nov 25, 2014)

There are a couple good "How to" blogs on the other end of a google search for you...

That being said, you have to be careful with found wood; whether it is driftwood, cut timber, deadfall or whatnot. Driftwood is often, not always, preferable because it has often leached out large quantities of sap (sugars, proteins, minerals, trace elements) and associated tannins into the lake, ocean or stream that you found it in (or near). The problem with driftwood is that it can pick up biological hitchhikers (invertebrates, mold, fungus, etc.) or chemicals. 

Regardless where your wood came from you should spend some time cleaning and sanitizing it before adding it to your tank. The easiest way to do this is to sink the wood in a rubbermaid tub or garbage can full of fresh water. Every few days you can dump the water, and replace with fresh. This will allow the wood to leach whatever it's carrying into the water. The next step would be to consider boiling the driftwood for an hour on a rolling boil to kill any biological hitchhikers which the wood may have living on or in it.

I'm not an authority, there are probably other/better methods of prepping found wood for the tank.

Your Mileage May Vary...

-- Pat


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## qualityshrimpz (Dec 15, 2009)

thats a pretty good way to clean it, i sometimes add some bleach but then it gets soaked for much longer


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