Treating Wood For Tank

[basboi85]

Story cut short.

The wife's nan had a tree in her garden that got pulled out the ground about 5 months ago and sat behind her shed till a week ago not sure exactly what type it is but the wood is half brown where its now dead and the other where the bark was looks fresh still but when its been out the bath and dried you can see its not wet.

I've cleaned it of all mud bark and kept the bits I wanted ect and I've soaked it in my bath for at least 54 hours this week the first night it leaked loads of tannis and slowly reduced till today to hardly changing the water colour and It slightly floats.


Please note I have boil washed this and soaked it always in hot water and it eventually cools down then I refil it with hot water again through out the day.

When would it be ok to use it in my tank ???

 

[DrRob]

Did it drop it's leaves in the winter? If yes, then it's a hardwood, which is a good start.

Have you taken off the bark, stuff tends to hide under it, which is a pain?

 

[basboi85]

It was pulled out start of the summer as she didn't like it in her garden to only replace it with a fruit tree

I do wonder where my wife gets her special thinking from lol

My father in law did most of the work he cut the branches off and hot rid of the " smaller " stuff just not the root upto where it split off.

I stripped the bark and I couldn't see anything but I still boil washed it scrubbed it with a wire brush and soaked it in boiling water in bath over last week for at least 54 hours and its now sitting on my landing teasing me lol I'll upload a pic in couple mins

 

[sputnick]

i would think you'll be ok.. i took a dead log out of my backyard (dead for 5+ years) and i only soaked it in cold hose water outside for a month to get all the tannis out. It froze out a couple times so im sure any submirsed bug was dead by the time i put it in my tank. I didn't boil it (waaayyy too big for that) or even soak it in hot water. its been two months since ive put it in and ive had no problems. it still leeches tannis but not nearly as much as it first did. I still have to do water changes weekly. partly because of tannis and partly because i like to fiddle with my tank.

 

[basboi85]

Oh and yes it's very hard my machete that is very sharp struggles to go through it

 

[basboi85]

Here's what it looked like the 2nd day and second heated soak
Hence a few dirty floaty bits lol

 

[Jam Jam]

That will look great !

 

[greenmumma141]

This would look pretty awesome in a tank, it's kinda of exactly what Ive been looking for actually lol. The only thing I would say is, you might want to make sure it's not black walnut. I guess black walnut is a natural herbicide, and if used in horse stalls can actually poison the horse without even being ingested, so I could only imagine what it would do in a tank. Maybe look up black walnut wood and see if the patterning is the same?? I dont think it looks like walnut at all though, but just to be safe.

 

[basboi85]

Just brought it downstairs as kids home to bed and I'm not the quietest of people

The root part 27 inch at longest point

The top piece I wanted 17inches long

 

[josh_g]

man that root bit will look sweet in a tank

 

[basboi85]

I hope so and just google black walnut and from what I remember it didn't look like that

 

[DrRob]

That's elder. It'll be fine.

It's a pain for floating for a while, so watch that, and it is a bit of a tannin leaker.

 

[basboi85]

I've got some rocks I can use to weigh it down and its not leaking that bad at the. Moment but I'm sure that'll change and there's nothing that a w/c can't fix if it gets to much for my liking lol

Thanks for id'ing the wood for me

 

[greenmumma141]

i didnt think it was walnut, but doesnt hurt to be safe

 

[DrRob]

i didnt think it was walnut, but doesnt hurt to be safe

Definitely better safe. Twas the picture that did it. I have some in my tank, and loads in my garden, or I did at least.....