Buying driftwood from petco/petsmart?

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bobsaget

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Feb 19, 2011
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i have a bristlenose pleco and i know they need driftwood. when i get it from the pet store do i need to rinse it, or boil it? i dont want to bring something weird to my tank.. like parasites, or disease like ick?
 
I would rinse and boil. Or bleach (probably only need 50/50 water/bleach), rinse/dechlorinate, let soak with more dechlorinator, then rinse again. Definitely don't want chlorine in your tank, either. And my first two pieces of driftwood are from PetSmart, so I've got pretty much the same stuff you're looking at.
 
I have a couple small pieces of mopani driftwood that were super cheap on sale at petco, soaked and boiled a couple times over 2 week period to try to get rid of tannin's, didn't bother with bleach figured the boiling would be good enough to kill anything that might be living in it.
 
TL1000RSquid said:
I have a couple small pieces of mopani driftwood that were super cheap on sale at petco, soaked and boiled a couple times over 2 week period to try to get rid of tannin's, didn't bother with bleach figured the boiling would be good enough to kill anything that might be living in it.
Click to expand...

I definitely meant boil *or* bleach. The size may prohibit boiling, so that's just an alternative.
 
well.. i first went there cause i saw little 3-4 inch size driftwood pieces in the tanks, and i have a bristlenose pleco that i'd like to feel more comfortable. however, i ended up seeing a "zoomed" brand mopani driftwood piece (out of water) for 10 bucks. so i bought that instead. and its like 9 inches. im gonna boil hot water, and put that in a bucket and let the wood soak in that. and let it soak overnight, but refill with boiling water at times. (i dont want to ruin any pots boiling the wood in them)

i am a little concerned, because i do have german blue rams. i hope theyll be ok? the wood shouldnt change too much chemistry in a 30g tank, right?
 
boiling is good to get the tannins out, but it seems like when I soak wood in hot water, it's more likely to have an "organic burn-off" and get a thick coat of slimy stringy bacteria for a few weeks. Afterwards it looks coarser and grainier than the wood that didn't get the bacteria. idk if this matters, but it seems like a pattern to me. Maybe I leave it in hot water for too long... prolly a couple hours until the water cools itself, then rinse and repeat.
 
I have EBRs, and added a new piece of driftwood right about a month before I got them (just a matter of coincidence, really) and they didn't seem to be at all bothered, not even when it got the fuzz coat going on.
 
yeah, none of the fish seem bothered by it. small fish and shrimp seem to enjoy picking through it. It's just an eyesore to people even though it really looks neat while it's waving in the current and stained red from the tannins :thm:
 
I have tactile texture issues, and that stuff is gross to the touch. That said, shrimp picked at it, nerites devoured it.
 
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