Habitat - Indoor :: Driftwood of doom!

[spaceapple]

So, last Saturday I set up my new tank and was very excited to put a big piece of driftwood in as my turtles' basking platform. It's Mac's heat treated driftwood from Petsmart, and (since it was already heat treated) I specifically asked the Petsmart girl if I would need to boil it or anything before I put it in. She told me no, so...I stick it in my tank and in about an hour the water is murky as heck. Since then I have boiled the wood twice and submerged it in my sink full of VERY hot water once (I don't have a big enough pot to fully submerge it while boiling). It has been a week, I've had to change the turtle water every day, and it's STILL making it gross! I'm about ready to give up; I don't know what else to do. I've never had problems like this with wood before, much less store bought pre-treated wood. I need some help in a big way!

[Daniel3507]

yet another reason not to trust petsmart people haha. i wish i could help ya but i dont know anything about driftwood

[untsmurf]

I'm not sure about the wood, but you could get some big pots, boil a bunch of water then dump it in the sink and put the log in there. That way it can soak in boiling water.

You could also put it outside in like a rubbermaid tub or something, full of water and see how it affects that water.

[mat012]

I kept mine in a 5 gallon bucket (just hot water from the tap) for about a week until it stopped leaching. It took changing the water about every day, sometimes more. This is normal and will clear up. If you want to take it out of the tank and let it leach out some more you could. Then you could do a water change and add some charcoal to the filter. It would clear up the water soon. I have not had a problem, but I soaked that bugger to death.

[Rexamus]

I'm no expert or anything but I don't think that driftwood was designed to be submerged into water. I was told by the district manager at Petsmart that anything sold in the reptile section has been treated with a chemical that can do harm if submerged into water. I would stick to any deco from Top Fin if I were you. I'm just passing along info that I was given.

[mat012]

Driftwood is frequently sold for aquarium use. Now whether the stuff in the reptile aisle should be used or not I dont know. But most aquarium/fish stores will have it. Folks also collect it and use it in their tanks. There is nice article over at ATP on making a dock out of drift wood. It has instruction for treating wood collected from "the wild". The stuff that is at fish stores has already been treated for bugs, etc. - well it should have been. For purchased drift wood, usually all that you need to do is soak it so that the tannins in the wood wont discolor the tank water. The tannins dont harm the tank or animals, it is just unsightly.

http://www.austinsturtlepage.com/Articl ... atform.htm

[RESnTX]

I had to soak mine forever to get all the gunk off it. After that you shouldn't have any problems except for maybe taking it out for a scrub every couple of months.

[mpittm7]

i followed the instructions on ATP to build my own basking site out of driftwood. After setting it all up which if you have tools is an easy process I had to soak it in a big icechest for about a week, changing the water each day. I used driftwood off the beach and it barely released any color but i kept soaking it to get it right. I think I know which driftwood you bought. Its dark brown huh? The guy at the fish specialty store told me that no matter what you do to that stuff, (boil, bake, etc) it will keep making your water look like TEA. Check out the article on ATP, get some driftwood from the wild and you wont be disappointed!

[spaceapple]

Thanks for the advice guys, but no one really told me anything I didn't already know. I've boiled driftwood for my aquarium before and the pieces I had in my first turtle tank with no problems at all. But this piece is getting ridiculous! In answer to your advice, untsmurf, that's exactly what I did: poured boiling water over the wood in the sink (of course, it stopped boiling as soon as I took it off the stove) and let it soak there for over an hour. I guess my best bet would be to take the wood out completely to soak for a looong time. Trouble is, I don't have anything to use for basking in the meantime!

[untsmurf]

Can't you use what you were using before??

[spaceapple]

No, the other pieces I have are way too small for this tank. And I'm pretty sure they would just flip over if the turtles tried to climb on them floating around.

[marisa]

Boiling the wood is actually not very good because it will break it down its structure and cause it to disintegrate faster. Better to just let it soak in water and change the water periodically (fresh water will also clean it). It probably will always leach some tannin, but over time the amount should lessen dramatically. Although not aesthetically pleasing, tannin isn't harmful, and actually increases the acidity of the water somewhat.

Some types of driftwood are meant to be submerged, others are not.

[evlock]

I bought two pieces of driftwood. at the local pet store. I soaked them for several days, changing the water daily. They didn't release anymore tannins when I put them in the tank, but one piece got algae on it nearly overnight. I took it out and baked it, and put it back in, but it did the same thing. I use it on his basking platform now. Fred like to prop his back feet on it while he looks over the edge into the water while basking. The other piece hasn't had the same issue.

[PcBuilder14]

I like the look but it just seems like to much of a hassle.

[spaceapple]

Well, I've just left the wood in the tank and changed the water daily since I first posted this. And I think it's finally getting better! The water is not turning nearly as murky, although I still haven't had a chance to clean off the icky goo that formed on everything. I'm glad to see some improvement, because I really didn't want to let go of this particular piece of wood. It does triple duty as basking area, hiding cave, and feeding dish! My turtles love it ^_^