Habitat - Indoor :: drift wood

[str1p]

i have a piece of driftwood i picked up from the beach back in July. Im about to start baking it and was wondering how long and how hot does it need to be?

[Chrisbarnett]

It needs to bake for quite a while, i would soak it for months first before i'd use it in the tank. I wouldnt want it to release salt.

[Linus]

Really all you need to do is to Boil it in water for like an hour and it should be fine.

[jay2487]

I had to boil mine for a few hours and cure it in a tank of water for a couple weeks, even when I thought it was done I would put it in the tank and within a couple hours it had filled the tank with tannic acid turning the water a nasty brown. It does help lower PH though but it looks like crap. literally

[marisa]

Boiling wood breaks down its structure. You could see how much tannin it releases by soaking it in plain water for a while. If it doesn't release much or you're satisified with the color of the water, I'd bake it (remove any loose debris with a brush beforehand) for about half an hour at 350 degrees and let it cool. I wouldn't worry about it releasing salt, especially if it's been presoaked---some people use aquarium salt in the tank.