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Re: Reconditioning driftwood
"Tomoko Schum" <tomokoschum@knology.net> wrote
(snip)
Actually I purchased this large driftwood and another one from the
Aquarium Driftwood in Mobile, AL. They were already prepped and
ready for use in fish tanks. They sank without any help. This
particular one I am having a trouble with was used in my borellii
growout tank for a year, but it was really too big for the tank
(stretches all the way from one end to the other). Borellii loved
it but I had a heck of a time cleaning the tank and catching the
large fry.
After it dried up, it does not sink anymore (soaked it for weeks)
and it leaches something more than just tannin into the water
column. I suppose it is full of bacteria since, believe it or not,
the night time respiration of the plants, bacteria and all living
things in my planted 75G tank pushed up the CO2 level to almost a
lethal level. I found all my fish floating belly up one morning
when I inadvertently left off a bubble wand after a water change the
night before. I checked the CO2 level and found it to be extremely
high even though my CO2 system was shut down.
I am having the same problem with driftwood I purchased from the same
company. In fact my driftwood arrived infested with what I could only
describe as "rolley polley bugs", hundreds of them. I ignored that
problem but when I placed it in my aquarium it floated. All five
pieces. I e-mailed Aquarium Driftwood as follows:
"----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Lester" <atlester@tampabay.rr.com>
To: <Carrie@aquariumdriftwood.com>
Sent: Friday, May 03, 2002 1:46 PM
Subject: My driftwood order
Carrie,
The new pieces of driftwood you sent me two weeks ago are excellent!
My only problem is they float. When I first received them I put them
in a bucket of water. But i could not tell they were floating since
the sides of the bucket were holding them up. Now I've had them in
my 120G aquarium for a week and they are still floating. What do you
suggest I do?
Andrew,
The wood had to have dried out. There is no way to re-waterlog the wood
once it has dried out. The only option to use the wood is to weight it down
( slate ) or glue it .
Thanks"
To me this is unacceptable. First as I describe in my e-mail my wood
was in buckets of water so it never completely dried out. Secondly,
those "rolley polley" bugs are terrestrial meaning some of the wood
wasn't submerged when collected. Lastly, I can't see why wood that
was water logged enough to sink a week ago isn't a week later. I
suggest you e-mail Carrie at Aquarium Driftwood
<Carrie@aquariumdriftwood.com> so she realizes that this mine is not
an isolated problem. Now that I spent $100 for "aquarium" driftwood
that is now completely useless. Maybe they will do the right thing
and offer to replace it or refund our money.
--
__________________________________
Andrew Lester atlester@tampabay.rr.com
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