Help With My Wood!

[barker_23]

Hi, I am just setting up my rio 180, i got myself a lovely peice of bog wood, on the big side, but a nice piece

i am soaking the wood in the tank for now as i dont have a container big enough to put it in and i have a few questions.

1, How do i stop the wood from floating to the top, its a big piece and i didnt really want to put anything on the top of it, at the minute its got a lump of concrete on it whilst it is soaking.

2, Like i say the piece i have is a little on the big side and there is a part of it that comes out the top of the tank, just wondered if anyone has any tips on how i can break it down without losing the natural look of it, i have tried to break it off but its pretty tough.

Any advice would be great

thanks

Rich

 

[minxfishy]

Boiling the wood in a large bucket/container would help to make it sink, just keep pouring boiling water over it for a week or so (obviously empty out the cold water LOL before adding more). It also helps to sterilise it a bit, make sure no nasties are on it and helps release some of the tannins so it doesnt colour up the tank water so much once its in.

If some of it sticks out a bit and you want to chop some off, just use a saw I suppose!

 

[barker_23]

Hi, thanks for the reply, i will get boiling the kettle,

i was going to use a saw but i wanted to make the break a bit more natural, and not just a clean chop off

 

[Esfa]

attack it with a screwdriver..

that's what i did... it looks natural, just takes a few hours.

 

[tenohfive]

If you saw along the grain of the wood, it should fracture off in a similar way to how it would look if you snapped it. Not tried that with bogwood but with most other wood, thats true.