Elm In An Aquarium

[mlawson]

Does anyone happen to know if some Elm is likely to be hazardous if I put some in my tank?

I was pretty sure it is, but now I'm wondering if it isn't.

 

[mlawson]

BUMP

 

[The-Wolf]

a quick search brought up that all species of Elm
(American elm (Ulmus americana), English elm (Ulmus procera), Rock elm (Ulmus thomasii), Slippery elm (Ulmus rubra) & Wych elm (Ulmus glabra))
are classified as a hardwood.
therefore, provided it is not green, it should be ok.

my only concern would be if the Elm had Dutch elm disease or more specifically the fungal spores that cause it,
would they somehow be dangerous in an aquatic environment? I don't know.

 

[mlawson]

Tanks for the info Wolf,

More specifically the wood in which I was intending to use is chinese elm, a dead chinese elm bonsai tree which died when my neighbours forgot to water it when I was on holiday. Rather than put it to waste I thought it could be a little feature in my tank. As far as I know the tree had no disease, but I'm not sure how you can tell, it died from lack of water as is the case with bonsai trees when they are only kept in small pots with a limited water supply. I doubt they would be dangerous in an aquatic environment as they would probably be dead, no? If I boiled the tree before do you think it would be OK?

Cheers,
Mike

 

[The-Wolf]

I would say that as long as their is no sap present in the tree it would be safe.
boiling it would kill any bacteria, insects etc that are present.

Personally I'd do some kind of control test before placing it in the main tank,
perhaps in a suitable container with some shrimp for a few weeks

 

[mlawson]

I think I might put it in one of my small tanks with some glass shrimp and see what happens.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[DevUK]

Sounds like it could make quite a cool addition to the tank though

You could grow some moss off the branches to make it look alive again, underwater

 

[mlawson]

Sounds like it could make quite a cool addition to the tank though

You could grow some moss off the branches to make it look alive again, underwater

Yeah, that is what I was thinking, sort of like the tank with the tree in the ADA contest. I would probably use some of my weeping moss.