How To Prepare Driftwood For An Aquarium?

2023 Author: Molly Page | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 22:49

Aquarists often use driftwood to decorate their home ponds. They are pretreated, but only dead wood that has been in water for a long time is suitable.

Driftwood for an aquarium is taken from dead trees, usually from the root part with the most bizarre shapes and complex plexuses. They use species whose wood does not quickly rot in water and does not contain toxic substances. The best driftwood from coastal willows and black salmon, as well as hard species of fruit trees, walnut, pear and others. The most persistent are willow and sedge driftwood that have lain for a long time in a river, lake or swamp. Most often, such a snag can be found on the shore after a flood.

Before immersion in the aquarium, the snag is treated: the bark is removed, the rotten places are cleaned, after which they boil for at least an hour (depending on the size) in a saturated salt solution in an enamel bowl. It is not necessary to add other antiseptics and disinfectants to the water - sterility is achieved without this.

Here's another way to handle driftwood. For this, any wood, both living and dead, is suitable, but not conifers. It is best to use willow or willow roots and branches.

Thoroughly rinsing from dirt, they are cleaned of bark. Then, with a saw and a knife, give the desired shape. The workpiece is placed in an oven of an electric or gas stove and calcined at a temperature of + 200-250 ° C for 2-3 hours. Do not increase the processing temperature, as the tips of the branches and protruding parts of the driftwood can be charred.

As a result of the operation, the wood almost completely loses moisture, and, what is especially important, complete sterilization of its deep layers is achieved. The surface takes on a beautiful brown color.

Further processing is no different from the traditional one: the snag is placed in a saturated solution of sodium chloride and boiled for 3-4 hours, then the same amount is boiled in clean water. An even better result is obtained by adding potassium permanganate to the water (one tablespoon per bucket of water), which has bactericidal properties and gives the wood a more intense color.

An article on driftwood in an aquarium: do's and don'ts?

The treated snag is not placed in the aquarium immediately after cooling and rinsing, but after keeping it for 1-2 days in a separate vessel with water to avoid a possible infusor outbreak. As such, it is suitable for an aquarium. So that the driftwood does not float, it is strengthened by resting its upper end on the screed of the aquarium or by attaching a plexiglass plate from below with a fishing line, on which stones and sand are put ballast.

If after a while in the aquarium, a white bloom appears on the driftwood, this means that it was not properly prepared.

Aquarium. Practical advice”. V. Mikhailov

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