Driftwood in reef tank

[sparrow1013]

I put driftwood in my SW tank about 8 months ago when I rearranged everything. Found a beautiful piece on an island and was allowed to bring it home….blah blah blah. I wanted to see what would happen if anything.

The driftwood is oak and had been salt cured by the beach, sun and heat. Salt cured driftwood is not the same as driftwood you find in or near freshwater. Tannins are depleted by the heat and salt over time and salt cured wood doesn’t decay at the same rate at other driftwood. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t decay, and that is still something to watch. I’m not an aquarium expert or even anyone to give advice, but I know a lot about wood. If it isn’t salt cured wood, I definitely would not put it in a saltwater tank.

So far I haven’t seen any cause for concern.
pH is 8.1 and that’s my normal pH. Nitrates are always around 10 like they normally are. I expected to see fluctuations the longer it stayed but nothing has changed so far. Zero water discoloration at all but I didn’t think there would be. I’m trying to find a reasonable test kit that will allow me to check for contaminants in the water, such as tannins or phenols. When and if I find a kit for that that I can afford….ill update. Just wanted to share my little experiment.

All woods parents the same and results would have been much different with other driftwood types.

 

[bluemon]

I don’t see an issue as long as it’s been cured long enough.

Its not like we don’t see wood in many marine environments anyways, especially in places like mangrove forests, although they can lean a bit more brackish,

Good luck!

 

[sparrow1013]

I don’t see an issue as long as it’s been cured long enough.

Its not like we don’t see wood in many marine environments anyways, especially in places like mangrove forests, although they can lean a bit more brackish,

Good luck!

My only concern is that it may somehow affect the corals. I’m new to corals but had SW tanks for the last 15 years. I kept a lot of anemones and some macros in my Blenny tank but nothing beyond that. All the corals in the tank are less than a month old. Everything seems fine so I’m just curious if over time, some type of mineral or compound leaching occurs and accumulates or has a negative effect. And how I’d test to find out if and what it was.

 

[56longroof]

I've always heard it would grow some kind of toxic bacteria. I never pursued it any farther but a tank with some macro and driftwood would be pretty cool.

 

[MnFish1]

I am not sure you can test anything except pH - which would drop if it was decomposing. However, just adding activated carbon should take care of any toxins, etc. I would be more worried about other toxins in the wood being on the beach - however, carbon will help rectify that - and it's only a very minor concern.