Why is my driftwood flosting?

**weishun** · 24th Dec 2004, 02:45

Hi all, i am new to the planted hobby. Just setup a new planted tank. I bought a piece of driftwood from a LFS. When i placed the wood in my tank, i was floating instead of sinking. How come will like that? How to make it sink? Can anyone please enlighten?

**izzat** · 24th Dec 2004, 03:50

Is your's bogwood or driftwood? Normally BW floats but not DW. You can add weight to this wood so that it does not float. It is because the wood contains small pockets of air which will take sometime before it realeases itself into the water. Boiling the wood might also speed up the sinking processes

**|squee|** · 24th Dec 2004, 11:20

http://www.petfrd.com/forum/articles...le&artid=7

**weishun** · 24th Dec 2004, 21:24

I have already tried boiling the wood, but still its floating. How long do you usually boil it? I boiled mine for at least 20mins before placing it back into the tank.

**Simon** · 24th Dec 2004, 23:00

[quote:b3f440af

="weishun"]I have already tried boiling the wood, but still its floating. How long do you usually boil it? I boiled mine for at least 20mins before placing it back into the tank.[/quote:b3f440af

]

what kind of driftwood? boiling helps remove air trapped in the wood, certain type of wood sink, while others takes a long time. Mangrove root in particular takes one of the longest time to sink (I had one that eventually sink after 2months, weighted under a large fossil wood)

better quality wood like bogwood, sinks without any problem

**|squee|** · 25th Dec 2004, 00:08

With wood, you have to be patient. Like Simon said... different types of wood sink differently.

All you can do now is either soak the wood for a month, or leave it in your tank weighed down by stones or something.

**weishun** · 25th Dec 2004, 06:13

Hmm.. guess i think no need to wait liao. I just got myself a new piece of wood after coming across a piece of wood with very nice shape. So decided to buy the wood. It sank immediately after i placed it in my tank. Wierd.

**jt1** · 25th Dec 2004, 17:02

For info sake, I put my driftwood in a container of water and microwave it. I felt that this way helps to expel trap air much faster as it sinks pretty fast after that.