Alder cones and wood

[Irene0100]

I just collected some alder cones and bits of wood.
I assume I must make sure the wood is well dried out before I use it, but do I need to do anything to the cones before putting in aquarium?

 

[macvsog23]

I just pop mine in as for the wood i have never used collected wood

 

[scatz]

i just chuck the cones in too, although if you do boil them up, you get loads of dilute black water extract

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Yes, just chuck the cones in. I store my spare cones in a padded envelope, and as long as they are dry they seem to keep pretty well.

If the wood is already damp, I wouldn't dry it, I would give it a good brush with a wire brush to get rid of surface dirt etc., then put it it to soak. I usually use our garden pond, but a bucket, or dustbin, is just as good. After about a weeks soaking I have a good poke at the wood with a chunky flat head screw-driver, and scrape off any obvious soft patches (you don't need to do this if you have Panaques etc.).

Alder, Oak, Hornbeam and Wych Elm are all pretty rot resistant, so is the heart wood from the bottom of old Buddleias & Elders, you will know if you have the right bit, because it is very heavy (Buddleia wood sinks even when it is green).

cheers Darrel

 

[Irene0100]

thanks. I thought you were not supposed to put green wood or anything where sap has not fully dried out, into the tank.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

I thought you were not supposed to put green wood or anything where sap has not fully dried out, into the tank.

This is "best practice", but unless there is anything actively toxic in the sap (like there maybe with Ivy (Hedera)) the small amount of sap is going to make little difference to water quality.

If you think of a healthy growing tree, it is very different from an animal, animals only have a small amount of "growing" dead tissue (hair, finger-nails, teeth enamel etc), but a deciduous tree is 95% dead when it is out of leaf, the only living tissue is the cambial layer, at the junction of the wood and bark. This layer is actively dividing and sloughing off bark cells to the outer and the constituents of wood (fibres, tracheids etc) to the inner.

When you cut through a tree branch, all living tissue is the thin green line you can see, all the other wood and bark is already dead. The heart wood will be heavily lignified and just acting as a physical support, and the sap wood will contain the vessels (phloem and xylem) that transport sugars down and water up through the tree (this is the sap), until the sap rises in the spring, the wood contains very little sap, and I would have no problem putting it straight in the tank.

I would have no problem with putting freshly cut heart wood in the tank, even in the summer, but I would be warier of putting a lot of freshly cut sap wood, as the sugars in the sap will feed bacterial growth and this could deplete dissolved oxygen. I wouldn't worry if I kept Panaques as they would consume the sap wood.

Something like a Prawn, or a piece of Sweet Potato, would have much more pollution potential than a reasonably large piece of green wood.

cheers Darrel