Soaking Bog/driftwood

[simbob]

hi how do you soak quite large pieces of bog/driftwood which doesnt fit in a bucket? soak it in the bath? or any other ideas? or dont i kneed to soak it? thanks

 

[doresy]

as with all natural decorations either submerse in or if too big pour over boiling water to kill of anything nasty. Driftwood, especially if off of the beach will be salty so soaking is imperitive.
I believe bog wood etc contain tannins which will stain your water brown so again it will need soaking. Obviously, running water is best. Do you have a local clean stream or river that you could tie it down in a secluded spot and leave it there for a coulpe of weeks, remembering to do the boiling water thing after

 

[Paul_MTS]

No neeed!

As mentioned the water can possible turn your water a refreshing tea colour for a while unless you use carbon but this can only be beneficial to the fish. Different types of wood release different ammounts of tannins.

There's no way I was able to presoak this bit...

 

[DevUK]

I usually have a spare tank seemingly at the moment. Currently I'm using my hospital tank to soak some bogwood. If your tank isn't set up yet you could just use that, if not, give it a very good rinse with cold water and boiling to kill off anything. Then put it in your tank and be prepared for plenty of water changes over the next few months while it leeches out the tanins.

You could also consider getting a cheap plastic dustbin or something, or if thats too large, maybe some sort of stackable storage crate?

When soaking though, its worth de-chlorinating your water, or leave the water standing for a good 24hours or so to let the chlorine naturally disperse.

 

[madmom]

You can use a kiddie pool if you have a place to put it or a new plastic garbage can. An old one can also be used but put a large heavy duty plastic garbage bag in it first (I'd use this as a last resort though.) A large Rubbermaid storage bin can also be used.

 

[DevUK]

Think big, plastic and cheap and see where that leads you

 

[Teelie]

Big, plastic and cheap is where I am soaking some wood right now. I am slowly building up my driftwood pile in one of my aquariums but pre-soaking it to get the majority of tannins out. Tannins don't bother me, it's the excess amount that all the wood I'll be adding would make it impossible to see that does.