How do you get your wood to sink?

[noclueman]

Hello, I've been looking for some nice shaped driftwood ever since I got my tank (over a year ago), and I finally found some nice pieces the other day at the beach. I went through the cleaning process with 4 pices of wood then I put them in the bathtub overnight with weights on top of them so they'd sink.

I obviously couldn't leave them in the tub forever, so I put them into the tank.

2 small pieces I have jambed between some rocks to keep them under, the 2 larger pieces are floating at the top ... about 85% submerged on their own. I was going to clean out some of the live plants anyway, so instead of taking them out I set them on top of the wood to help them sink a little bit more.

The wood has been in the tank for about 2 weeks now and even the small pieces will still float if I take them out from under the rocks.


Anyone have a good way of making the wood stay down?

Thanks,
noclueman

 

[gadazobe]

Silicone them to slabs of slate (aquarium silicone only) - that should keep them down.

Mopani wood tends to be denser than driftwood and sinks easier. It's also more expensive than driftwood.

 

[Iron Man]

Malaysian wood is VERY dense and will sink right to the bottom. Its very reasonably priced and is some of the most beautiful driftwood you can find IMO.

Regarding what you already have....you could do that with slate or any inert heavy relatively flat piece of rock like granite.

 

[noclueman]

is that the only way? I was under the impression that he wood would eventually sink on its own.

I don't want it floating forever

noclueman

 

[Tolak]

It probably will sink, given enough time. There are who knows how many huge, furniture grade virgin growth logs at the bottom of Lake Michigan, left over from the logging industry at the turn of the century. I don't even wait for silicone to dry, much less decades. I sink mine with a piece of slate with a hole drilled in the bottom, & screwed to the wood with a brass screw.

Tolak

 

[gadazobe]

"is that the only way? I was under the impression that he wood would eventually sink on its own. "

Depends on the weight of the wood - smaller pieces take longer to sink.

 

[shuhu]

I don't know if you did this at the "cleaning process" but I have read (and also done it mysef) that if you boil the pieces of wood for like an hour or so they will sink very easily, and there's people who had to do this several times (weeks) before it finally worked

 

[ccg]

I am waiting on 4 peaces to sink, and they have been in my tank, completely submirged for about 2months now.

I can feel that they are heavier now, so they soaking in water, not to sure how long they'll take to sink.. hopefully in the next few weeks. I also found these peaces on the beach.

As for the comment about boiling it for an hour and sinking easily, this was not the case for me, but some of these peaces are 4 feet long, so maybe that is the reason.

 

[noclueman]

Yeah, 2 of mine are 3 to 4 feet long. 1 of them is about 10 inches long and the smalles is about 8 inches long.

They're still floating....I'm thinking about tying weights to them.

 

[ccg]

If you can try and ty them down or something similar, so they are all the way under the water, I would imagine they would get water logged a bit quciker being 100% under.

Also, if you are just placing rocks on them be very careful. Because if a rock sldies off, the drift wood is going to shoot up towards your lights etc. This is what happend to me, nothing was damaged though, but it could have been bad.

So like you said, tying them down untill they sink is likely your best option, I would not silicon them to anything.

 

[shuhu]

it would still be safer for the fish if you sink them on another tank or something until they stay in the bottom without requiring help

 

[The-Wolf]

Yeah, 2 of mine are 3 to 4 feet long. 1 of them is about 10 inches long and the smalles is about 8 inches long.

They're still floating....I'm thinking about tying weights to them.

for pieces of wood that are too big for pots,
the second best thing is putting them in a bath tub
and covering with hot water.
this will take a little longer than boiling, as the water is not as hot
make sure you keep topping up the hot water througout the day.