Driftwood?

[LadyMac]

Ive never seen a scape with driftwood and I was just curious as to why not? When I go to the beach, I’ll sometimes see pieces of wood from piers and trees in the water. And I’m sure there’s some under the water way out, from boats of old sunken. So, why do we not use wood in an aquascape? If the wood was a hard wood and very aged , it should be ok, right? Would there be any real cons to the use? What about pros? I’m sure a mix of rock and wood could look amazing in an aquarium!

 

[KJ]

Ive never seen a scape with driftwood and I was just curious as to why not? When I go to the beach, I’ll sometimes see pieces of wood from piers and trees in the water. And I’m sure there’s some under the water way out, from boats of old sunken. So, why do we not use wood in an aquascape? If the wood was a hard wood and very aged , it should be ok, right? Would there be any real cons to the use? What about pros? I’m sure a mix of rock and wood could look amazing in an aquarium!

Driftwood is no good in a reef tank because it will drop PH to acid levels and start to dissolve coral skeletons.

 

[LadyMac]

Even if the wood has been aged and no longer releases tannins? What about a fish only tank? If you could ensure the ph stayed stable and no tannins were leeched, would there be any harm otherwise? I’ve seen exceptionally hard wood stop releasing the tannins after several years in a fresh tank and no longer effect the ph. Just curious.

 

[LadyMac]

Oh but I’ve seen people “make” rock with cement(or whatever) so I have seen some pretty realistic made wood pieces. Why wouldn’t anyone use those? I’m not one who’s a fan of fake things in an aquarium but I wonder how a scape could look if trying to show something like around a pier( so a large square or rounded piece of “wood” somewhere. The possibilities!

 

[Breadman03]

There is a nature center near Rehoboth Beach, DE that has local biotopes represented including around a pier. I don't know their husbandry practices, but it looked really nice. It's been a couple years, but they had pilings with a bunch of grasses in the display.

 

[LadyMac]

There is a nature center near Rehoboth Beach, DE that has local biotopes represented including around a pier. I don't know their husbandry practices, but it looked really nice. It's been a couple years, but they had pilings with a bunch of grasses in the display.

Oh nice! I’ll have to browse to see if they have photos. I wonder how they deal with the ph drops....

 

[Breadman03]

Oh nice! I’ll have to browse to see if they have photos. I wonder how they deal with the ph drops....

It's called the Seaside Nature Center in Cape Henlopen. They are essentially on the water, so I imagine that they just pipe seawater in for their tanks.

 

[LadyMac]

Well that’s pretty lucky! I’ll look for it and possibly contact them to ask some questions. I have another plan for what I want to do but it’s going to be super difficult since I’m only creative on paper and not with things bahaha!

 

[Gareth elliott]

This option will not be inexpensive but there is a whole market for reclaimed wood. Some of what is offered is fully petrified and will not leach the tannins and organics of organic driftwood. When i was looking for hardwood flooring they had petrified pier pilling, i went with regular bamboo $80/sq foot for 1200 was not in my price range [emoji23].

 

[LadyMac]

This option will not be inexpensive but there is a whole market for reclaimed wood. Some of what is offered is fully petrified and will not leach the tannins and organics of organic driftwood. When i was looking for hardwood flooring they had petrified pier pilling, i went with regular bamboo $80/sq foot for 1200 was not in my price range [emoji23].

Ooh petrified wood! I didn’t even think of that. I’m going to certainly do more research. It would be nice to set up something encorporating it into a sea scape.

 

[Maritimer]

Petrified wood (properly) is the fossils of trees that have been permeated with stone - and should be safe enough.

"Petrified" pier pilings will have been treated with chemicals such as creosote that you probably won't want in your aquarium.

At our local Public Aquarium, we have a couple of tanks whose decor includes dock pilings and the wrecked remains of wooden ships - the materials were created by exhibit fabrication firms, and though they _look_ very real, they're made of non-toxic artificial materials.

~Bruce

 

[LadyMac]

Petrified wood (properly) is the fossils of trees that have been permeated with stone - and should be safe enough.

"Petrified" pier pilings will have been treated with chemicals such as creosote that you probably won't want in your aquarium.

At our local Public Aquarium, we have a couple of tanks whose decor includes dock pilings and the wrecked remains of wooden ships - the materials were created by exhibit fabrication firms, and though they _look_ very real, they're made of non-toxic artificial materials.

~Bruce

Perfect! I’m still curious why no one encorporates these things into their scales. It’s always rock and never “wood”.

 

[Maritimer]

Well ... petrified wood really is rock, after all . . . though not very porous.

One very good reason is that liverock, which is basically fossil coral, is made of the stuff that corals need to grow. Another is that its porosity provides homes for microscopic life - from 'pods down to bacteria.

A smallish amount of wood, used as something of an accent, might be OK - if you can be sure that it's of a sort that won't leach much in the way of chemistry, and will last a while in a marine environment.

~Bruc

 

[Bellasmith]

I put Sungrow driftwood into my reef tank but it started growing a black slime mold after a few weeks. This could be the cause of the death of the majority of my tank. I had to remove them from my tank due to the mold.

 

[vetteguy53081]

It leaches acids and alters chemistry through decomposition

 

[stanleo]

The main reason beyond aesthetics for using driftwood in a freshwater tank is to lower the pH of the tank naturally and to soften the water. Two things you do not want to do in a reef tank. I have a large piece of driftwood in my 110 gallon FW that has been in one tank or another for over ten years and I would wager that it still leaches organics into the water. If you want some kind of wood in your aquascape for a reef tank, fake wood made specifically for an aquarium would be the only way to go IMO.

 

[sanzz18]

always wondered about this

 

[Bellasmith]

Thats sound good

 

[Arthurfarris]

True driftwood will contain a lot of tannins and they are dangerous for aquariums because they tint the water and lower the pH level too much. To make the driftwood safe for your aquarium, you will need to boil it for an hour a couple of times then soak it in a bucket of water.
Continue soaking the driftwood and change the water when it gets too dirty. When the water remains clear and the driftwood sinks to the bottom, it is safe to use in your aquarium.

 

[ahud]

From freshwater experience, driftwood is not going to drop the PH much (if at all) if you have sufficient buffering capacity, which I imagine you easily would in salt water. So this would not be my main concern...you could easily test to see if the wood was using your buffer (KH). The drop would be a SLllooooow process.

For example, people are often throwing leaves, seed pods, filtering through peat, etc in an effort to lower the PH and hardness of their aquariums to breed Amazon species...if they have high KH water, all of these things do not have much impact and they end up having to use RO water.

One bad thing about driftwood would be the little pieces that sometimes come off. Certain woods are worse than others. Manzanita is horrible. Mopani has been good. But I imagine the little wood debris would be unsightly in a reef tank. Make sure you pick a hard species if you try it.

Also check out Brackish tanks people have done, I think they use driftwood.