DIY Driftwood

DIY Driftwood

For those of us who are the DIY types and who do not want to spend money on over priced driftwood from the pet shop, here is a simple guide to making your own.

Selecting the wood.

Finding driftwood can be a fun experience for the whole family. If you are lucky enough to live in a country setting, most driftwood can be found near your back door - in a river, lake, stream, or forest. If you live in suburbia or the big city, you may have to travel out of town a bit to find something suitable. Driftwood does not have to be 'drifting' in a stream or lake. It can be from one of the many fallen dead tree in the woods. Make sure it is OK to remove wood from the area. Some lands are protected and it is against the law to remove fallen trees/wood without first obtaining a permit.

Avoid softwoods such as Pine, Willow, or other fast growing tree. Avoid trees with lots of sticky sap like Pine or Maple. Avoid Cedar as it contains oils that repel insects and could be harmful to your fish. Hardwood (the harder the better) is best. It will last longer and you will be much happier with it. Cherry, Apple, and Oak all work well. Hardwood weighs more than softwood because it is more dense, and will also not break down as fast in your aquarium. Where you live determines what is available.

Take a good saw or hatchet along with you. You may have to cut it from a larger piece. Try to pick a sun beaten, old, gnarled and very dead specimen. Unique shapes with knots will add character to your aquarium. Look for signs of rot or infestation, which may make it un-desirable. Avoid polluted areas so you don’t pick a specimen that is contaminated. The more pristine the area, the better.

Preparing the wood.

Once again, make sure there is no rot. Use a wire brush to remove any rot. Strip the wood of any bark. Prepare a large plastic container by cleaning it and filling it with clean water. Tupperware or Sterilite work well. Dump in a couple handfuls salt and mix it well. This salt-water solution will help draw out any impurities and dehydrate many organisms on or in the wood. Weight down the wood with rocks, submerging it completely and cover the container with a lid. The wood will most likely leach tannins, turning the water brownish looking. Soak it for a few days to a couple weeks, changing the water daily. Try to soak it until it sinks on it's own and stops leaching tannins into the water. The length of time you need to soak it is largely dependant on how sun bleached it is to begin with. When you feel it has soaked long enough, rinse it well.

Sterilizing the wood.

There are two ways to sterilize the driftwood – Boiling and Baking. Boiling or baking will kill anything the salt water did not and keep your fish safe. There are pros and cons to either method.

Many times, boiling the wood is impractical unless you have a very large pot the wood will fit in. Boiling tends to stink up the house a bit. But, with boiling, there is less risk of the wood catching fire. Boiling also helps to ensure the wood will sink when added to the aquarium. If you choose to use this method, boil it well for at least an hour at a full rolling boil. Make sure the water covers the wood at all times.

Another method is to bake the wood in an oven on low heat (200 degrees F) for several hours. I prefer my old outdoor gas grill. Usually the wood fits nicely inside and I can close the lid and simmer it on low heat for as long as I like. When baking the wood, keep a careful eye on it. The dry heat of baking can allow the wood to catch fire, so check on it frequently.

Adding the wood.

The natural realistic driftwood addition makes any tank look spectacular and many fish and live plants love it. At first, your new driftwood may float again and you may need to attach it to a piece of slate or stone to weigh it down. There are different methods of achieving this. Your new wood may also leach more tannins into the water column for a period of time. This should not last forever and adding carbon to your filter will help to remove them. If it does leach tannins, they will not harm your fish. Keep an eye on things for a while and soon your driftwood will become an established part of your aquarium. Watch for mold growth or other abnormalities and you should be fine. You and your fish may now enjoy your new DIY driftwood.

This is not meant to be an all inclusive, authoritative guide. Comments, suggestions, corrections, etc, are welcome.

Special thanks go to Pris, for her collaboration, expertise, and the co-authoring of this thread.

[Plecocrazy]

Originally Posted by drisean

grape wood ok too?

No grape vine will just rot away and mess with your water chemistry.

[Pris]

Originally Posted by liguhy

what kind of salt?

do we need to buy aquarium salt? Will table or epsom salt work?

lastly, I bought some hard wood for my aquarium that says it's prepared, but I'm soaking it anyways. Do I still need to boil/bake it? It'll fit in a pot, so I'll boil it if I need to.
http://www.zoomed.com/html/mopani.php

Table Salt, aquarium salt (expensive), kosher, or pickling. You could even use the kind of salt used in water filter systems, though it would take awhile to dissolve.

Not Epsom, however.

[Pris]

Originally Posted by guppy to goldfish

Does all the bark have to come off?

The bark is a lot softer than the wood, even on hard wood. If you dont' remove it, it will soften fairly quickly, then come off in your tank, making a mess. (speaking from experience, here.)

FYI: The hardwood I talked about above is inherently heavy - dry or wet - and not terribly expensive (assuming you aren't buying very long pieces). It sinks immediately and already has all the bark removed (sandblasted).

It took a while to leech most of the tannis out, but eventually I got enough out it doesn't discolor my 30gal significantly. Boiling it accelerated the leeching and bacteria killing, so I highly recommend this route if you can fit it into a pot. Be careful to change the water often or you may "dye" the wood the darker color all over.

Keep in mind that some trees release oils in the water column that are toxic to fish. A certain cedar is infamous for this, the problem being that every part of the country seemingly has its own "red cedar" that is a distinct species.

[Pris]

Originally Posted by babygeige

Ok, here is a weird question: Is it normal for it to smell odd while you are soaking it? And if so, will it eventually go away?

It will smell. I didn't consider it especially bad, just "heavy". The smell goes away.

However, if it smells like rot, or fungus, you might want to boil it as you soak it.

[Plecocrazy]

Originally Posted by ldigman

Can you use driftwood from the ocean in a fresh h20 tank?

Thanks

You shouldn't have a problem using that wood. You'll have to boil and let it soak for a while though to help remove the dissolved salts in it.

[Pris]

Originally Posted by andywooloo

Can you use a dishwasher?

Boiling it is to kill any unwanted pests and remove tannins. I do not recommend the dishwasher. Besides the fact that most dishwashers do not get hot enough to sanitize (though some do), it could be a problem if pieces of the wood ended up clogging up the drain. The water spray in a dishwasher is strong enough to dislodge dried on food. Therefore, it could dislodge loose pieces of wood (or sand, or bugs).

Heaven knows if one of my kids put wood in my dishwasher, there would be heck to pay.

[Pris]

Originally Posted by LeggoMyPleco

I am in the process of following these steps in order to make a piece of driftwood. I am not certain that I picked the right piece of wood. For starters, I'm not sure it's a piece of oak. It came from this huge tree in my front yard and it had broken off and has been lying at the base of the tree for ages. It's definitely not a pine tree. Secondly, It is somewhat brittle at the edges. I don't know if proper driftwood is supposed to be dense or sort of light like this thing is. Is the bouyency of the wood any indication? This particular piece floats like a fishing bobber. I am having to hold it down in the salty water by putting a half full 5 gallon bucket on top of it. Will it soak up the water and start to sink? Because as it stands right now this thing will never sink.

I boil mine and let it go at that. Boiling kills anything that salt will kill. The salt was added to the information for those less inclined to boil or bake to sterilize.

Some wood is simply hard to get to sink. Hard woods will sink faster because they are more dense.