Waterlogging wood

[Jennet3 61]

Can anyone tell me approximately how long it takes wood to get waterlogged please?

 

[GaryE23 138]

It very much depends on the type and thickness of the wood. I just this morning added some elm sticks to a tank. They sank in 6 weeks outdoors in a covered tub. Maple has sometimes taken longer, but for pieces about as round as an adult male wrist. Thinner pieces are quicker, and all work better at first weighed down.

I have pieces in tanks now that were put in water in early Spring, and we ready by October. If you have bought local hardwood driftwood (common in stores) they are quicker, at about a month as they just sink again. Mopani type wood should be in that range, but I have never bought any.

Aquascaping's not for the impatient....

 

[Jennet3 61]

Thanks for that.

I have a piece of Mopani wood that I love that I put a up picture on here somewhere. I used with my snakes. It is the width and depth of my current tank, so it would take up too much free swimming room for the fish, but I will get a large enough tub eventually to sink that in for my next tank.

For now, I just have some small wood from the store that I will do.

 

[MattW24 139]

I have never successfully pre-waterlogged wood. I either used a slate slab screwed into the bottom of the wood or used Aquarium glue cemented onto other hardscape.

 

[TwoTankAmin18]

I use a lot of Malaysian wood. It sinks dry without needing to be be pre-soaked. Another wood that will sink when dry is Mopani. Both of these types come in all sizes from small to extra large.

 

[Jennet3 61]

I use a lot of Malaysian wood. It sinks dry without needing to be be pre-soaked. Another wood that will sink when dry is Mopani. Both of these types come in all sizes from small to extra large.

Ah, then that may mean the Mopani I used to use with my snakes is not actually Mopani wood then, as it just sat at the top of my tank when I put it in there, so I took it out.

 

[TwoTankAmin18]

Mopani driftwood is an extremely dense, two-toned African hardwood featuring sandy-tan and deep chocolate-brown colors.

It dries out sitting in the sun. This causes the side exposed to the direct sunlight to turn a tan color while the other side remains a much darker shade of brown.

At my peak I had close to 50 pieces of Malaysian wood. I had a lot of pleo tanks and each had multiple pieces. I also use it in my display type tanks.

I started out using yprus which is extremely light weight. It needs to be held down. I had it mounted on ceramic tiles using stainless steel screws. I have a few specialized drill bits for drilling through glass and ceramics. Since it was mostly going into planted tanks and I did not want to bury the wood in the substrate, I used nylon spacers between the tile and the wood. This let me elevate the wood above the tile. That way I could bury the tile under substrate which helped to hold it down and also minimized how much of the wood was in the substrate. This also meant I could plant cos to the wood as I usually want the tile to sit on the bottom glass if possible.

These come in a variety of lengths. I got them, the drill bits and the Stainless steel screws from a local hardware store.

 

[Boundava2]

Like others have said, it depends on the wood. Mopani and Malaysian will sink 99.99% of the time. Other woods may never get waterlogged enough to sink, so they are attached to a base like slate.
Sis had a large piece in her 120 that was in the tank for over 2 years and never got waterlogged. It was too big to presoak so she utilized rocks and siliconed it to the back wall to help hold it down.
When I got into the hobby its wasn't hard to find woods for aquarium use that sank, nowadays it opposite.
Spiderwood (azalea roots) sink as well but as they sit they form the most amazing layer of what can only be describes as snot. Its a bacterial film that many biofilm loving fish (clown plecos, swelia/gara) and invertebrates (shrimp/snails) find delicious.