I do NOT suggest you put that wood into your tank. Aside from tannins there are fungus, bacteria, parasites, and pollution to worry about, and soaking it in boiling water or baking it in an oven for a few hours is not going to rid you of all of the things that could be contaminating that piece of wood and could quickly cause some major problems in your tank.
Insects and parasites can lay eggs inside of the wood. These "bugs" can lie dormant for a long time until conditions are just right and then suddenly hatch, infesting your tank and quite possibly your fish. The same thing applies to fungus spores.
Aside from those things there are a lot of different forms of pollution that you simply can't remove by boiling and baking.
Pet supply manufacturers that sell wood have special equipment to help sterilize the pieces of wood they collect and they also have specific places they collect it from, which cuts down on the risk, however, it does not guarantee that any piece of wood bought from a pet supply store is safe from all of the above mentioned things.
Whenever you put any piece of wood into your tank there is some risk involved. Collecting your own from a lake, stream, river, etc. only increases that risk by 10 fold.
I have seen many people over the years wipe out their expensive and beloved tanks by adding a piece of drift wood they picked up outdoors.
In regards to the rock you picked up... there is something I suggest you do besides the sterilizing and vinegar check. Get out your pH, KH, and GH test kits. After the rock is clean and free of the vinegar, soak that rock in a bucket of water taken from your aquarium and test it with each of those tests every couple of days for 2 wks to be sure it doesn't contain minerals that will alter the pH, KH, and/or GH of your water. This too can be quite harmful to your fish. When we pick up a rock and we clean it and do the vinegar test that allows us to see how safe it is on the surface, but we still have no idea what is contained inside. There is the possibility of any of a multitude of minerals and/or heavy metals that can be veined through that rock and can and will affect water chemistry in ways that can harm your fish/animals.
Here again, I have seen many disastrous situations happen because someone skipped this step and added a rock picked up from outdoors to their tank. There are forms of pollution that also cannot be removed via vinegar and water conditioner, so please understand that in spite of all the testing, there is some level of risk involved, but these extra precautions lower that risk greatly.
Dawn
--- In AquaticLife@yahoogroups.com, "Kiersten M" <ariesstarfire.blue@...> wrote:
>
> Today we went floating on a river n I noticed a pile of wood n I couldn't help but pick through it n found the perfect piece of drift wood. Have NOT put it in my tank because I dug it out of a muddy river bank with very very still moving water. Im wanting to prepare it for my tank. Iv read on at least 15 links to scrub it with a brush, then boil it(although it wont fit in a pot that I have because its "branchy") so the next best thing I see is to add boiling water to a 5 gal bucket with the wood in it - wait to cool- rinse and repeat a few times, and then let it soak in clean water for a week chaining the water until I notice a decrease of tannin in the water. It said to soak it with a dechlorinating agent. Are there any that work better or are preferred over others? I'm just a bit worried I wont get it clean enough n I kill my tank n have to start aaaalllllll over again.
>
> I'm definatly a DIY kinda person, so I picked up an awesome rock to go with the drift wood and iv got it soaking in water with a bit of vinegar but its going to get at lease a week of soaking and scrubbing before it goes in my tank. Iv searched everywhere for "that piece" to add to it, but I haven't found it on line or in my pet stores. Send me to the river for 20 minutes n I'm one happy camper. Haa.
>
> Thank u guys very much. As I said, I'm a total newbie here. So I'm very thankful for ur advice and patience with me. Lol
> Kiersten
>
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