Beech Wood/twigs

[simonbrown403]

Now my discus are coming of age theres no need for the bare bottom tank any more, so i,ve been looking for some ideas to decorat there tank.
I,ve been thinging of doing a bistope with a big root type area and and a open sand area.
The problem is i cant find any desent wood that i like the look off, apart from that vine root which i,m not to kean on.

On my travels across the www i,ve seen a lot of nice tanks that are using beech colected from the woods.
I was wondering if anyone has any exsperance of preparing beech twigs and wood and how they went around it.

 

[CFC]

First you must dry them out so that there is no green wood inside the branches at all, hanging them in a dry shed for a few months should do. Once they are fully dried you must then remove as much of the bark as possible using a wire brush before finally soaking them until they become water logged enough to sink.

 

[simonbrown403]

I belive you can spee the process up in the oven.

 

[SamUK]

wouldnt it set fire in the oven?

sounds risky neway lol.

 

[shrimply]

I don't know if this is correct but I have used the oven on quite a few occasions to dry out wood for my vivs. It has never set fire to them. This sound interesting I am going to keep an eye on this topic. Always on the look out for cheap natural decoration.

I don't really understand what you want to do but to sterilise wood you can cook, boil freeze or microwave. Some need safty precautions but they all work.

 

[Durbkat]

It won't catch fire unless its already dry and you turn the oven up to full power or something like that.

 

[Dorkhedeos]

the wood will warp crack if it dries too fast, so becareful if you use the oven, unless you want cracked wood

 

[CFC]

You could dry small pieces in the oven by leaving them overnight on the ovens lowest setting but i doubt anyone here has an oven large enough to dry whole branches in

 

[simonbrown403]

I dont but my mum dose i,m sure she would love me to pop up and stick half a tree in here oven over night

 

[funkybodal]

First you must dry them out so that there is no green wood inside the branches at all, hanging them in a dry shed for a few months should do. Once they are fully dried you must then remove as much of the bark as possible using a wire brush before finally soaking them until they become water logged enough to sink.

I just give them a rinse and chuck them in, bark, leaves and all. The leaves look fantastic actually but they do obviously tend to slowly disintegrate over time so you need a decent filter to cope with the waste. Although CFC's way is probably a lot safer, I've never had any probs at all. You sometimes get abit of fungus growing on the wood but this clears up quickly and doesn't seem to occur if your tank is heavily planted.

They will float if you don't soak them beforehand but they're usually long and bendy enough for you to lodge them against the sides of the tank without too much trouble.

Apparently oak is also a safe wood to use in aquariums

Cheers,
Luke.