Xterra

I went hiking yesterday and found a pretty cool piece of wood that I would like to add to my tank. However, I am not quite sure what type of tree it belongs to, and I really do not want to disturbe my Discus tank at all! I was wondering if you guys 'pre-treat' wood before adding it to your tanks? If so, what do you recommend? This piece of wood is failry large, and even though it will fit my 66-gal tank with no problems, my concern is whether I should be worry about any chemical changes in the water composition due to the new addition?

gm333

It should be fine, there are several ways to season the wood for your tank. The best and quickest way is to boil it. I use a large lobster pot with a turkey cooker. I boil the wood for at least four hours. If it is too long to fit all of it in I will boil one side the flip it over and boil the other side.
Boiling it will help take alot of the tannins out and help kill unwanted pests in it. Although this method will not make it fully submergable so you will have to attatch a piece of flat rock to help keep it submerged.

You can also obtain a kiddie pool and place a rock over it so it will become waterlogged. This will also get rid of unwanted pests as well. You will need to replace the water frequently to keep pests from establishing the water and wood. This process will take awhile. It depends on the size of the piece, how pourous the wood is and how dead it is as to how long it will fully become waterlogged. Even after the wood is ready to put into your tank it might still leach tannins for awhile. The tannins will not harm your fish, just make your water tint yellow to tea color.

Xterra

Thank you very much!