natural wood in viv

[darksolace66]

ok so this will probably sound very stupid but I NEED to know before I go buying $80 worth of Malaysian driftwood or the equivalent. I've been reading around and everyone says to go find your own driftwood and bake it to sterilize. I think i also read that you can get branches/logs from outside and bake them "clean" as well. My question is this: If you take dead branches from outside, will they rot in a humid viv? I was thinking the driftwood would be ok because its kind of cured itself, and by me in NJ i can get beach driftwood as well which i KNOW is waterproof. Blackjungle also says to soak the wood in vinegar/water solutions to remove acids unless you want a blackwater viv lol. So it would be a HUGE help if someone could explain if i found some branches outside and wanted to make a custom "ledgy" background for my tank using GS and cocofiber (would like to mount airplants to the background)so cypress and Malaysian is perfect but $$$! if i can just find wood outside, bake it (maybe autoclave it since i work in a lab!) will it be "rot proof?" I know grapewood isn't but i havent tried the sand blasted variety...

[Epiphile]

All wood will rot, given enough time. I use Malaysian driftwood for the most part because it does seem to hold up best- perhaps it's because the wood is tropical hardwood. It is expensive, but I prefer it to locally obtained materials, personally.

The baking I believe is just to sterilize the wood- it won't do anything to extend it's life in vivarium conditions, I don't think. There is something to be said for the naturalistic effect of decomposition in vivariums, but it's not for me, personally.

These are only my experiences- I have no doubt that others have had good success with locally obtained materials. I haven't as yet, though I've got something in the works which may change my tune a little.

[DazzleDiscus]

Yes, Malaysian driftwood holds up fantastically and is one of the slowest woods to rot due to its heavy grain (hardwood). Soft wood will rot faster because it soaks up water faster than harder woods and is more airy. Personally, I like to use local hardwoods (but I also prefer native plants/animals). Cost less, and if done correctly, it will take many years for the wood to rot in a humid viv. Naturally, it will rot faster if used underwater. However, I have used soft wood in my aquariums before and the fastest time it took for one of the softwood pieces to show signs of rotting (small pieces/wood slime coming off when you rub the wood) was two years. It was also an old piece of soft driftwood so it had a shorter lifetime anyways.

I don't think that you'll have a hard time of common woods rotting... the issue that would come first would be the wood leaching tannins into the water. So long as the wood is still leaking tannins, the wood won't rot (in my experience). I think I've read an article in the past about how tannins in wood are a natural buffer to keep the wood from degrading.

[froggsong]

I'm not sure how adding acid to the soak water will help remove more acid from the wood... I could be way off on that, but boiling would be a more efficient way to get the tannins out of the wood.

I use lots of native wood. Quite a bit of it is soft wood. Most of what I am currently using has come out of a burn pile behind my house that my landlord is going to burn this summer. It is sitting on a wetlands in WA state. All of the wood is wet and partially rotten before I get it and clean it up. I use the claw of a hammer to loosen all of the soft spots, a tile knife to shave off the soft exterior and dig out most of the soft bits, then I wash it with the pulse setting of my shower head and bake dry (you could also pressure wash it at home or at a car wash). Baking does seem to make the wood more rot resistant, IME. When heated, it makes the remaining sap run through the wood, and as the moisture is baked from the wood, the sap hardens. I've got some nice little amber bits on the piece I did yesterday, it had so much sap left inside. In fact, there are places where the sap ran across the surface of the wood in a sheet and it's harder than any varnish. Sounds like stone when you knock on those places.
If you use native wood, soft or hard, and it won't have water running down it, it won't discolor your water, and it won't rot anywhere near as quickly. If you notice it stays moist, plant some moss on it. If you want it in your water, boil it a few times until the water in the pot doesn't turn brown. Hot water leaches tannins much more efficiently than room temp water.

That said, the non-native wood I use is mopani wood. It is an excellent african hardwood, and doesn't even rot under water for a very long time. I have some that came to me years old from someone's aquarium, and there are very little signs of rot.

Be careful with driftwood. Driftwood is great, don't get me wrong, but ocean driftwood is somewhat less desirable than it's freshwater counterpart. Ocean driftwood contains high levels of salts that could effectively poison your water or burn amphibians. You'll have to boil it at the least to remove some of the salts. I have a huge lot of ocean driftwood that I had planned to use. I've not used a single piece of it. You could certainly use it in a dry environment (I'm thinking of putting some in my beardie tank), but it must be treated properly in a moist environment, especially if it will come in contact with water. Freshwater driftwood shouldn't have to be treated, other than soaking and baking to be rid of any parasites.

[darksolace66]

thanks guys thats very helpful. i have a ton of trees around and like i said was planning to GS into a background with coco fiber in between (as seen on black jungle and this gallery) yeah i dont no why they would say do a vinegar soak but im pretty sure thats what i read. i have grapewood in another set up, none high humid no irrigation and it looks like its starting to mold a bit. but mold is a different issue than rot i feel. so i dont have to spend hundreds on malaysian? yay! i do like the look of mopani. i also wanted to make sure the airplants could root into it. i dont think that will be a problem. so as long as i sterilize and dry any wood, not just "wood for wet habitats" i can use them for backgrounds?

[beckdg]

yup... i live right across the river from you and that's about what i do... i boil it replacing the water when it gets too dark... until the water doesn't get REAL dark too fast.

i've got wood in both my fish tanks and my crabitat i've done this way and i've had no issues at all...

[darksolace66]

oh one more question (sorry! ) how long does it typically take to leach tannins out of wood? i will test the ph over time i was just trying to get a time frame. 2 weeks-ish? thanks again frogsong,dazzle and ephile for your help! i will post pics when i get all my supplies together

[beckdg]

also... i use a turkey fryer pot for larger pieces... anything too large can be left in a tub or tote to soak for a couple weeks and then baked to boil from the inside out.

[beckdg]

leaching tannins is nothing typical ime. some take 20 mins boiling some take days on end. it depends on the wood and the thickness.

if soaking it may never completely leach... you'd have to decide when it's okay for your liking according to the water color.

[DazzleDiscus]

ha- wow yes I can account to some stubborn driftwood! I was given a couple of nice-sized local hardwood pieces and they were too big for any pot that I had in the kitchen. After scrubbing off the wood and washing with the water hose, I sunk them in my garden pond (using large stepping stones to hold them underwater). It wasn't even a week and my whole pond was one big brown mess. I left them in the water for a whole year before taking them out.

That year we got a LOT of rain and whenever the forcast called for a downpour, I'd sump out the pond water and watch the rain fill it back up. Took a long time, but then again, they were big chunks of wood!