My grandma has a very large piece of driftwood she's kept as a decoration for years. It's been indoors for almost 1.5 years now. Could I clean this and put it in my aquarium? If so, how? It fits really snug inside the 37gal I'm about to set up… is it too big + would take away too much swimming room from my fish? Maybe a bad idea but it's such a beautiful piece of wood… I'm planning on putting 6 corys and 8 glofish tetras in the tank, with some snails and neocardinia shrimp
Posted by opalescnt
3 Comments
I mean, if you got a big stock pot to boil it in, sure. Or just risk it with low-stakes tank stocking and let it chill for a while.
I know folks are jumpy about wild pathogens, but diversity in a well setup nature-style aquarium helps balance that stuff out and reduce the risk.
With the fish you’re planning for, I don’t imagine they’ll be too crowded by the wood, and the shrimp will adore the biofilm that grows on it.
Make sure you weigh it down so it doesn’t float, then I’d plant some tall plants in back and a carpeting plant in front and see how it establishes.
Looks good in the tank. Do you know where she got the wood from? Did she literally find it at the beach? If you have a pot big enough, boil it for like 10 to 15 minutes. If not, if you have a big thick #2 or #5 plastic tub, set it in there and (carefully!) dump boiling in it and let it soak. Could also do that in a sink or bathtub. In any case, let it soak in hot water for a while so it becomes waterlogged and doesn’t float
I would just worry that if it’s been sitting around in a home used as an out in the open decoration that it’s probably been exposed to a large number of chemicals over the year, from deodorizers to potentially disinfectants and other cleaning products.