Got Wood?

[AusPleco]

I got wood this morning lol from my LFS is like half a stump or a tree about 3ft long is going in my 4ft tank for my soon to be peppermints from mix02u.
Anyhow what i want to know is if anyone treats their wood with anything before they add it?

I got it soaking in a 220litre plastic drum but it dont float anyway. Hosed it already and scraped loose stuff off with a screwdriver.

Would i be safe in just adding it?

 

[Breamlegend]

It depends on the type of wood and how old / dried out it is.

 

[AusPleco]

heres the wood, can see it in tank

 

[jimmywr]

nice bit of wood :clap:

 

[bigbird]

nice bit of wood indeed. just monitor this. Did mixo2u have it in a tank before ? I usually keep all new wood in a seperate container for 4week with water conditioner. cheers jk :thumbup:

 

[AusPleco]

lol noooo i got the wood from the LFS for $50 from the private collection out back lol, i am getting some peppermints from him lol.

In regards to the wood the fish really love it the guppies are very inquisitive and since i added ti the peppermint i got in there hasnt been in the cave she has been under the wood. To make things even better when i was putting it in i found 2 guppy fry so had to cover my filter intakes and bottom of my liquid power filter

 

[Jackson]

I just steel brush it and soak and rinse in boiling hot water over and over until I'm tired of doing it lol then I soak in freezing cold water and rinse over and over until my arms and back are about to give out lol this pocess takes two days.

I had to stick my 6' manzanita tree in the shower and scrub it like I was showering a child. I had nothing big enough to soak it in. My small 4' tree I soaked in an extra 90 gal tank for a day.

I also rot wood in buckets here and there and throw it in as a treat.

 

[AusPleco]

Has been in tank for about 16 hours now and no negative signs not even any tannins. The fish are absolutely loving it, the albino fry are actually swimming araund the tank like a normal fish alot lol

 

[AusPleco]

Okay so these are my readings at the moment
PH 6.4
Ammonia – 0
Nitrate – 10-20ppm
Nitrite – 0ppm
Kh - 1-5kh

Now i have a Sera KH test kit and havent used one before but on the instructions it says to add a drop and gently shake before adding another drop and it should go from blue to yellow. When i tested my from the first drop it was yellow however very faint and upon reaching 5 drops it was a nice rich visible yellow.

What am i doing wrong lol or is my water just really soft?

 

[phear]

im hoping you mixed up the nitrite and nitrate levels as nitrite means the tank is still cycling...

 

[AusPleco]

im hoping you mixed up the nitrite and nitrate levels as nitrite means the tank is still cycling...

haha yeah, tank is definately not cycling

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

is my water just really soft?

Yes, it just means you have soft water.

cheers Darrel

 

[AusPleco]

Well i was finding the tank too hard to clean with this piece of wood in the tank so i am going to break it up or saw it into pieces and would like to do something good with it.

Would like to hear peoples suggestions?
I have considered like siliconing the pieces together to create somethign but i dunno

 

[zeebo]

humm, cut that beautiful pc of wood up ? are ya sure, what about standing it up a bit, leaning on the side, or put a rock under the narrow side to bring it up some, then you can still vacuum , and you fish still get to enjoy thier new wood. :dk::dk: just a thought...but if you really have in mind to cut it up, I am stumped,no pun intended, cuz i am not sure the silacone will last long . I tried using silacone to put some stones together, and only lasted about a year ,then began to fall apart. Maybe others have ideas .

 

[zeebo]

Hi, just wonder what you use to clean the tank ? I use a python and it would never get under that wood...I would hate to lift it eveytime cleaning day comes and disturb everyone. It is such a cool pc of wood with great hidey places, but if ya gotta chop it up , ya gotta do whatever makes you happy ,look-wise and cleaning-wise . Let us know what you decide.

 

[AusPleco]

I use a eheim gravel vacc and a normal gravel vac when i do my water changes

 

[Theus]

That really is a very nice piece of driftwood! Back when I had my 75g set up, I had a piece similar to that and had the same issue with cleaning under. As mentioned above lean the smaller end up a little bit or what I did was put a couple small stones under each side to raise it up, and added a smaller rotating power head directed under the driftwood. You don't want it to powerful, but to provide enough of a current to push any waste/uneaten food out from under it. I had one of my filter intakes on the opposite side to suck up whatever the power head pushed over.. and it worked very well.. I only checked under it once every couple months and waste build up was always very minimal.