How do you treat large peice of wood?

[Kimm87]

I plan to add drift wood to my new tank, but if i get a piece thats like 10+ inchs and will actually work in my 10g it wont easily fit in a pot for boiling so how do i treat it?
Also do i need to buy a brand new pot for boiling the wood or can i use a pot we regularly cook in and then continue to use it to cook?

 

[Colin_T]

Just rinse the wood and then put it in a clean fish only bucket full of water and leave it there until it sinks. Change the water each day. When it has sunk, take it out, rinse with water and put in tank.

However, because you have a current issue with snails dying in your tanks, I would not add anything new until the snail issue has been resolved.

 

[Tooombsy]

When I first set my tank up with the piece of wood in my profile pic, I left it in the bath overnight.

I turned the water temp up on our boiler to max and filled the bath with hot water, bathroom was like a steam room it was so hot.

When I woke up in the morning the wood had already sunk.

 

[NickAu]

Nobody likes blackwater tanks?

 

[Tooombsy]

I quite like when the tanins colour up the water but my main reasons for doing it was to get the wood to sink.

It was so large I put rocks on the flat parts and it was still floating up

 

[Kimm87]

Just rinse the wood and then put it in a clean fish only bucket full of water and leave it there until it sinks. Change the water each day. When it has sunk, take it out, rinse with water and put in tank.

However, because you have a current issue with snails dying in your tanks, I would not add anything new until the snail issue has been resolved.

I dont currently have any snails to kill so no issue there

 

[Byron]

I dont currently have any snails to kill so no issue there

I think what Colin was getting at is that something may be killing the snails, and whatever this is, if it is a pathogen or toxin or chemical, can get into the wood placed in the tank, making the wood "toxic" in the future.

Someone mentioned soaking wood in the bath...not a good idea as there may be soap, cleaning agents, etc adhering to the bath. Wood will soak up water and everything in the water, and these can leach out down the road, mysteriously killing fish and invertebrates.

Wood should only be soaked in a bucket used solely for fish work, in tap water (chlorine in tap water is not a problem as this dissipates out), if you want it to sink on its own.