# Driftwood: When will this darn thing sink?



## FAIRCHILD (Jun 30, 2011)

These few pieces have been soaking for 3 days now and nothing. I got them from my LFS and I'm beginning to just say the heck with it and silicone it to slate. Any suggestions????


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Time. The thicker they are the longer they will take. My last piece took about 7 days. Just make sure nothing is out of the water. And when you think it is done, put it in the position you plan to have it in in the tank (if not already) and see if it still wants to remain still. Mine looked finished but when I positioned like it would be in the tank it still wanted to float up a little.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

I've got a piece of wood that has been floating over a year now. I figure in about 6 months it might go to the bottom.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

susankat said:


> I've got a piece of wood that has been floating over a year now. I figure in about 6 months it might go to the bottom.


LOL. I assumed if you let it float, it will never sink. So I weighted mine down.....unless you were just making a funny  Nice to have a tub you don't use.


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## FAIRCHILD (Jun 30, 2011)

Is there any woods you shouldn't use in case I wanted to use some dead limbs I have on slate to skip the water logging procedure?


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

I have had it weighted down with petrified wood and rock, the cichlids moved the rocks and the piece floated up. No I wasn't joking. It's been in the tank now 11 months one month in a plastic tub weighted down and it still floats.


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## automatic-hydromatic (Oct 18, 2010)

is it too big to put in a large pot and boil in water? boiling it opens up the grains and allows the water to soak in a little easier


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

This may seem stupid, but I thought the drift wood sank already.... I figured the people went and got it from where ever (in the water), cleaned it, then sold it to the LFS to sell.... good to know. Does drift wood leach any colours into the water? (I know some woods have to be soaked to let the tannic acids out, which turns the water yellow.)


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Its too big for a pot. We have very hot water here and I put it in the tub and kept hot water on it, but hasn't helped.

Yes most will leach tannins for awhile. Which I like the tea color it gives the water and so does most fish. But it can clear up fairly fast with charchol and water changes.


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Why people soak their wood for purposes of getting rid of the tannins is beyond me. I liked it, but it doesn't last very long.


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## James0816 (Jun 19, 2009)

jrman83 said:


> Why people soak their wood for purposes of getting rid of the tannins is beyond me. I liked it, but it doesn't last very long.


Absolutely. Love tannins. The natural look.

Anyway....depends alot on the type of wood too. Certain woods just take longer to sink. Others, like Mopani, will sink as soon as you drop them in.


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## mk4gti (Jun 15, 2010)

LOL i soaked the peices in my 90 gallon for a month and they still wanted to float. Another good thing is to buy a brand new scrub brush and scrub the wood.


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## BBradbury (Apr 22, 2011)

Good morning 28...

I'm extremely particular about what I get at the LFS. The best driftwood pieces are those you get at your local river beds or similar places. A little pressure cleaning from the garden hose and drying in the sun for a few hours is all you need.

You'll need to use rocks to weigh down the wood, but that's part of the fun of finding and the creativity of arranging the pieces in your tank. Depending on the piece, it can take days, if not weeks for the wood to become saturated. That's the purpose of the rocks, to weigh the piece down.

I have used suction cups for heaters and dark sewing thread before to secure driftwood to the bottom and then just arrange Java fern around the suction cups to cover them.

There are any number of ways to disguise the more unnatural things in the tank.

B


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## luananeko (Aug 27, 2010)

holly12 said:


> This may seem stupid, but I thought the drift wood sank already.... I figured the people went and got it from where ever (in the water), cleaned it, then sold it to the LFS to sell.... good to know.


Good to know I'm not the only one who thought that  I always get my driftwood from my LFS, they sell nice chunks of Malaysian driftwood that always is happy to sit right at the bottom with no fuss. 

28, do you know what kind of driftwood you bought?


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## FAIRCHILD (Jun 30, 2011)

luananeko said:


> Good to know I'm not the only one who thought that  I always get my driftwood from my LFS, they sell nice chunks of Malaysian driftwood that always is happy to sit right at the bottom with no fuss.
> 
> 28, do you know what kind of driftwood you bought?


I do not actually  I have it weighted down currently. It's in my RCS breeding tank so I will give it a week and see if it will stay.


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Just picked up some malaysian drift wood today. It's soaking in a bucket. Wish they had more pieces that were 'root like' or 'branchy.' These were mostly flatter pieces.


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## FAIRCHILD (Jun 30, 2011)

holly12 said:


> Just picked up some malaysian drift wood today. It's soaking in a bucket. Wish they had more pieces that were 'root like' or 'branchy.' These were mostly flatter pieces.


Me too! I actually just found a piece that had a few branches at a stream from my house so going to start curing it.


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## Galvatron898 (Feb 27, 2011)

I boiled my drift wood for about 6 hrs then soaked it in a 5 gallon bucket for about 2 weeks changing the water twice a day, before it stood down


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## DocPoppi (Mar 4, 2011)

The denser the wood the harder to sink. Some will never sink, or at least not in many many years. A very dense wood makes a good barrier to absorbtion to water, also any oils or resins that may still be in wood.
You can drill holes in areas that are not seen to allow water to the core faster. Even then some wood may not sink.
There is also a density factor that allows wood to sink... ( I know it sounds like double speak) but it has to do with displacement ( Boyles law )
Certain wood has the right density but not enough area, so that it does not have to be thoroughly saturated to sink. Much of a LFS wood is like this, many roots and Burl wood.
I've had a piece of wood that was underwater for a year or so (typical sunken, not held down). I pulled it to put in another tank and re-size it, when I broke it in two the core was still dry.
If a piece that has once been soaked and sunk, then allowed to dry it is still gonna sink but needs time to reabsorb the water to offset the displacement.


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Most lfs can order specific sizes of mopani. Thats how I got my big chunk thats in the 220. It can get expensive though.


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