Driftwood Grapewood?

[Ralphw62]

I was in petsmart yesterday and they have these big nice pieces of driftwood for sale....all shapes and sizes....only thing is..... its in the turtles and reptile section..  it says heat treated on it is all but nuthing about fish or under water?
 
i found the link
 
 
http/www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3994577&f=PAD%2FpsNotAvailInUS%2FNo
 
says its grapewood?
 

 
I could scrub it real good boil it
thanks

 

[Jakes]

woods wood... aslong as isnt treated pine or anything with chemicals added, boil it up and chuck it in it'll b fine

 

[Chad]

Which wood is important as different kinds have different qualities. Some have high levels of tannins which turn the water brown for example.
 
Grape wood tends to rot overtime and is known to promote the growth of fungus and tends not to sink as well as some other woods and requires longer water logging to do so. I've read a few people who say it clouded their tank up. That said you can still put it in the tank, you may just need to remove it and replace it after a while or suck off the fungus.
 
Mopani is a good substitute as it looks similar though it is higher in tannins.

 

[Ralphw62]

I found a piece of mopani ,,, nice size piece for 10 bucks.......also went out in the woods this am and got myself a load of ash and hickory roots  I'll boil em up later on when I get the urge

 

[Chad]

I love hickory and oak. Nice heavy woods. I've not used ash though. What are its qualities?

 

[Ralphw62]

ash is a light colored wood, hard. similar to hickory, grain like it and oak, not as hard as the other 2, but very versatile if you are a woodworker.. the decay rate I would guess would be about the same.

 

[Chad]

Nice. Decay rate is important. Sometimes light colors can look so so once algae start growing but I suppose that comes with the territory.

 

[HHH]

as tcamos said i presonally would not use grapewood as it mainly for reptiles. I would use Malaysian Oak and mopani (did i spell that right? )

 

[DrRob]

I keep hearing that ash is bad, but have never heard anyone with any actual negative experience, but worth being cautious with.