Wood to soak in stream?

[Zante]

I'll be setting up a large riparium with plenty of wood, much of it emergent for epiphyte plants. I have access to loads of wood from a nearby chestnut grove. I will have to soak the wood for a while to get it properly waterlogged though.

Since I'm a few months away from even ordering the tank, and I will have access to that wood a lot sooner, I was wondering if i could start selecting the wood and start soaking it right away in a stream that runs near my house. The water is clean, we used to fish trout and catch crayfish before it was banned.

Is that a bad idea for some reason?

The pieces would be quite large and/or long, so boiling them isn't much of an option in any case

 

[fluttermoth]

I wouldn't use any water that has wild fish living in it. They may be carrying some infections or parasites that they themselves are immune to, but that could cause havoc with your 'domestic' fish.

They only way to avoid that would be to boil or dry the wood before you put it in the tank, which would negate the advantages of soaking it in the first place! Wood shouldn't be boiled in any case; it just 'cooks' the fibres and makes it, ultimately, break down faster.

I'd look at getting a water butt/storage boxes and soaking the wood in those instead

 

[Zante]

I see what you're saying, but we're talking of lumps of wood over 1m long and over 20kg weight each, plus long branches that might reach 2m in length.

Hmm... maybe just the weight of the emersed parts will keep it down, chestnut it is quite dense wood after all...

 

[StandbySetting]

The only problem I see is if there is any farming nearby as fertiliser can run off into the stream and your wood will soak it up.

 

[Byron]

Fluttermoth and StandbySetting have both raised important aspects. There are two critical issues here.

First is the wood itself. Wood absorbs water and everything in the water. It could be months before something toxic that happened to get absorbed will leech out, and no amount of soaking or boiling will necessarily deal with this. As an example, back in 1997 I had a chunk of wood that I had purchased in a fish store, and a reliable one at that; it was quite large, about 20 inches in length by 7-8 inches width, and 5-6 inches thick, tapered sort of. It made a lovely "tower" at one end of my 5-foot tank, and my Zebra Pleco loved it, and made his home in it. Anyway, after this had been in my tank for almost 2 years, the fish began acting lethargic, and some slowly died. I spent weeks testing for everything, doing large water changes, discussing with all and sundry...until it finally transpired that someone suggested the wood. In the end, it turned out that some toxic substance was slowly leeching from the wood. I discarded it, did a major overhaul, and everything returned to normal.

The second issue is what might be in the local ecosystem. There are many pathogens and protozoan that live in temperate ecosystems and to which native fish have an immunity. Tropical fish species do not. The same works in reverse, which is why we must never ever release anything from an aquarium into the ecosystem waterways. Fish normally do not have an immunity to pathogens that are not part of their habitat. We have all heard about this or that animal or plant introduced accidentally or to deal with some issue, only to make things even worse. My point here is that the wood soaking in a local stream might well pick up pathogens and release them in the aquarium. And here again, there is no certain way to deal with these beforehand.

Byron.

 

[Zante]

Regarding what might be soaked up by the wood, I know that there is nothing to soak up from where I pick it up. The chestnut grove is a few hectares in the middle of several hundred hectares of oak and hornbeam woodland. I know the owner of all this land personally and he trades in wood. He's never treated anything in his woodlands because there simply is no need.

As for soaking up stuff from the stream, I do see your point, and while there is very little of relevance anywhere upstream I'd rather not risk it.

As for the possible pathogens, it would be unfeasible to boil such large pieces of wood, but what about steaming? Would a steam lance be able to sterilise it enough?

 

[Byron]

Regarding what might be soaked up by the wood, I know that there is nothing to soak up from where I pick it up. The chestnut grove is a few hectares in the middle of several hundred hectares of oak and hornbeam woodland. I know the owner of all this land personally and he trades in wood. He's never treated anything in his woodlands because there simply is no need.

As for soaking up stuff from the stream, I do see your point, and while there is very little of relevance anywhere upstream I'd rather not risk it.

As for the possible pathogens, it would be unfeasible to boil such large pieces of wood, but what about steaming? Would a steam lance be able to sterilise it enough?

If one could ensure that the boiling water or steam reaches every particle of the wood...but that isn't too probable. Also, boiling wood will contribute to the onset of rotting, faster, so this is not good anyway. I've never done this. Always a risk though, but once in 25+ years isn't a bad ratio, though it was still sad to lose those fish.

 

[Demeter32]

I say soak it in a swimming pool that doesn't have added chlorine and what not. That's what I would do anyways, we have a pool that never gets used by anyone but the tree frogs come spring

 

[StevenF]

You could make a temporary pond in your back yard to soak the wood. As to steam lance it would only work on the surface. Another option would be to put the wood in a pipe or heat resistant box. Feed steam in at one end and let it leave the other. If you keep it in the steam box long enough the heat will penetrate deep into the wood.

 

[fluttermoth]

I'd just wait until the tank's set up and soak it in there; weight it down with rocks if it wants to float

 

[flchamp89]

SS screws and piece of slate

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[Zante]

I say soak it in a swimming pool that doesn't have added chlorine and what not. That's what I would do anyways, we have a pool that never gets used by anyone but the tree frogs come spring

One would need to have such a pool available

You could make a temporary pond in your back yard to soak the wood. As to steam lance it would only work on the surface. Another option would be to put the wood in a pipe or heat resistant box. Feed steam in at one end and let it leave the other. If you keep it in the steam box long enough the heat will penetrate deep into the wood.

No back or front yard, or garden.

I'd just wait until the tank's set up and soak it in there; weight it down with rocks if it wants to float

Yeah, I'll have to go down that route. Chestnut is quite dense to start with, and the weight of the emersed parts should help with that.