Wooden Intarsia

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Tips for sterilizing Aquarium Driftwood

If you find a piece of wood on dry ground or cut it from a tree and let it season it is most likely safe from disease or other harmful pathogens. But many aquarium owners like to treat it anyway just to be safe. That is a decision you will have to make. If you found the wood in a body of water, especially a stagnant pond, you will probably want to treat it. If you find the wood in a clear stream it is probably more safe.

Wood should first be scrubbed clean to remove dirt and debris. It is usually best to remove the bark since it may start to decay and fall apart once in your aquarium. Bark can also contain and release more tannin into the water than the wood will. Remove any moss or lichen since it may be toxic to fish.

One way to sterilize the wood is to heat treat it. You can boil the wood in water for a couple hours, some say up to 8 hours, while others may only boil it for *0 minutes or less. For larger pieces of wood, the extended boiling times are to make sure the wood is heated all the way through.

You can also heat treat the wood by placing it in the oven and baking it. You will just have to be careful to not allow it to get hot enough to catch fire. I would suggest not getting the wood much over **0 degrees Fahrenheit or much over boiling temperature, both for fire safety and to keep from harming the wood. If the wood is wet you may not want to use the oven since the wood may vent a lot of steam if you get it too hot. The heat will also dry the wood out, which may mean more work for you in re-saturating the wood so it will sink later.

Sometimes an easier way to sterilize aquarium driftwood is to soak it in a bleach solution. Make a solution of about one cup of bleach for 5 gallons of water and soak the wood for 3 or 4 days. Then soak the wood in fresh water for 4 or 5 days, changing the water every other day. Just make sure all the bleach is gone before placing the wood in your aquarium. At this point you may want to continue soaking to reduce the tannin in the wood.