# Driftwood Q. Is it safe if it is...



## the_skdster (Aug 15, 2006)

Here is a piece of driftwood I found at a nearby waterway. A tiny river or whatever you call it.
A bit longer than 2feet measured at the bottom.
It was not submerged in water nor was it floating.
I found it it near the bank of the waterway. It's very much covered in dirt.
Is this safe to put in my aquarium after I give it a very, very thorough cleaning/scraping/boiling/etc?
Is this even considered driftwood?
What exactly defines driftwood btw?

















^^^and my kitten. named Lucky.















^^^the mom cat ran away and the other kittens look like regular cats. nobody wanted a black cat so I kept him!









*I found quite a bit more wood floating. but this was the best looking one thus far after 25mins of searching. I found another one drifting that looks pretty flat and about 1foot long. I'm going to leave that floating in my tank.:nod: *


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## DiPpY eGgS (Mar 6, 2005)

Did you find that in a stream or a creek..lol

If you boil it, and wire brush all stuff off of it, like bark, and rotted pieces, you can try putting it in. 
But if it starts to rot in your tank, get it out. I would tie it to a brick and sink it for a few days/weeks too


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## benJii (Feb 17, 2005)

Yes, I would say that is safe, as long as you give it a proper cleaning. I personally don't do the whole boiling sh*t and stuff, but a nice thorogh cleaning of the dirt would be nessary.

That looks like drift wood, driftwood is loosly defined as water-logged wood, and usually all its bark has rotted/fallen off.

Looks like an awsome piece! I sure wish I had that. Just give it a proper cleaning and it should look great.


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## the_skdster (Aug 15, 2006)

Thanks for the very, very quick response guys!








I'll get to work on it when I come home tomorrow afternoon.








*right after I go get some more driftwood. I only looked through 5% of the creek/stream/whatever.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

id just boil it then soak it in a tub of water (use a rock or something to weight it down) so all the dead peices dirt etc.. will float to the top


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## the_skdster (Aug 15, 2006)

shark_boy said:


> id just boil it then soak it in a tub of water (use a rock or something to weight it down) so all the dead peices dirt etc.. will float to the top


another Q.
How in the world am I supposed to boil that?!?
A portion at a time? no?


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## blackeye (Mar 9, 2006)

I have put mine in the tub and just kept adding boiling water. It didnt clean it as well but it did the job. I dont think you can really be prefect with drift wood anyways. I found it alot faster and easyer just too buy some haha Oh and the biggest problem I had was finding a piece that sank because it takes alot of weight too make a large piece of driftwood sink.


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## BlackSunshine (Mar 28, 2006)

forget about boiling it. its just too big. the nice thing about real drift wood is it is cleaned and not alot of tannis in it. you really only want to be worried about bacteira and little buggies. I sugegst taking some concentrate lemon juice and douse every inch the peice. Let it soak for 15-30 min and then rinse with hot water in your bath tub. 
Or you can use a mixture of bleach and water. But make sure you wash it REAL good if you do it that way.


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## benJii (Feb 17, 2005)

Even though the boiling could help, I think it would be unessary and time consuming.


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## the_skdster (Aug 15, 2006)

Thanks for all the informatic replies guys.
I'll do the best I can and pic it up in a new thread soon enough.


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