Archivarium 2004
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davidk
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Joined: 01 May 2005
Location: Long Beach, CA
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 Posted: 2005.05.05(Thu)14:38 Post subject: beach driftwood |
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I live in Long Beach, CA across from the beach. The city usually cleans up with a bulldozer after every storm. Theres a HUGE pile of driftwood on the beach across from my condo. Would it be safe to clean up for aquaruim use? I can grab a couple hundred pounds of the driftwood easily.  |
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kjh90
Regulars
Joined: 15 Mar 2005
Location: Ohio
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| Posted: 2005.05.05(Thu)14:50 Post subject: |
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| If you boil it and soak it for several days in dechlorinated water, it should be fine unless it turns the water in the bucket you soak it in a color that isn't normal. |
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benedictj
Advisors
Joined: 05 Dec 2004
Location: new york, ny
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| Posted: 2005.05.05(Thu)15:14 Post subject: |
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| kjh90 wrote: | | If you boil it and soak it for several days in dechlorinated water, it should be fine unless it turns the water in the bucket you soak it in a color that isn't normal. |
It's not unusual for perfectly normal driftwood to turn water brown. The brown stuff is tannins, which while asthetically undesirable to some, aren't necessarily harmful to your fish as long as you keep a close eye on your pH (tannins contain acids and can cause a drop in pH and buffering capacity if in high concentration).
That said, I would be cautious with driftwood coming from a saline environment. You might want to boil it twice and soak it for a month or so, changing the water regularly to expel anything that might be leaching out of the wood.
Also, it might be worth doing water testing on it before adding it to a tank. Here's how I would approach it once you get towards the end of the soaking period (once the water isn't discoloured).
-Change all the water in the soaking container and replace it with dechlorinated tap
-Fill another container, approximately the same size as the soaking container, with nothing but decholrinated tap water.
-Leave them both for at least 24 hours
-Test the water parameters on both containers. If there is a great difference in the pH and hardness between the soaking container and the tap water only container, you might want to forgo adding it to your tank or continue soaking it until there is no noticable difference.
-It's worthy to note that measuring specific gravity might be the best way to determine if the driftwood is adding salinity to the water. I'm just assuming you don't have a hydometer (I don't), in which case guaging hardness and pH differences are sort of a 'poor man's' way of doing it and may not be the most accurate.
Also, you might want to look into your local laws. In some states removing driftwood is illegal. (it strikes me as something worth looking into since they just pile it and don't remove it)
By the way, if I had a steady, regular, legal driftwood source...I'd go into business.
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davidk
Members
Joined: 01 May 2005
Location: Long Beach, CA
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| Posted: 2005.05.05(Thu)20:00 Post subject: |
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I'm going down the beach in a few minutes. I'm gonna grab some and get a pic of the pile of driftwood.
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davidk
Members
Joined: 01 May 2005
Location: Long Beach, CA
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| Posted: 2005.05.06(Fri)11:51 Post subject: |
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The wood was in bad condition. Most of it was too big, and it smelled like fish and wet dog. Ill just look on ebay for a nice peice of wood for my tank.
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