An idea for sinking wood (No Boiling required)..

**nicklimzhiwe** · 13th Nov 2009, 23:58

Hi all, I do not know if this have being mentioned before, or even if I'm posting in the right section..

But as I was looking at my blood worms rot in the tank in the process I cycling, I notice air-bubble coming out from my driftwood too.. It is very fascinating to me to see my wooding having pearling and bubbling (LOL! Who would have thought?)..

I first notice this behavior when I did a big water change, unknowingly with some warm water.. I started to see pearling coming out of the wood..

So this thought came to my mind.. When we have wood that is too big to put into something to boil, we can actually fluctuate the temperature of the tank in our water to achieve this effect which will help sink the wood.. All it takes is 2 degrees or so of fluctuations.. How I achieve this is that in the morning before going to work, I would turn off my cooling fan, and when I get back, the temperature is usually around the higher 28 to 29 degrees, or maybe even 30 on a good day.. Then I would turn on my cooling fan and the next morning, the temperature would be somewhere around the lower 27 degrees, on a good cold morning two days back, the temperature even dropped to 26.8 degrees, with just two ANS 12cm cooling fans..

This sinking process actually involves squeezing the air out of the wood when it contracts under the lower temperature (thus causing the bubbling effect), and then opening up the pores of the wood when the temperature is higher and letting the water rush in (okay, maybe rush isn't the best word, maybe sip in)..

This way is definitely a whole lot slower than boiling your wood, but I'm guessing that this method is surely going to be faster than just anchoring your piece of wood down to the bottom of a tank with a nicely controlled temperature..

Last say, THE TEMPERATURE NEEDS TO FLUCTUATE if we want our wood to sink faster.. (This is something I discovered myself without any reference to any post or book, as mentioned at the start of this post)

Cheers Mates!!!

**Jungle-mania** · 14th Nov 2009, 09:45

Sounds logical, how long did it take till the wood finally sink?

**nicklimzhiwe** · 14th Nov 2009, 13:05

Mine if undisturbed and slight covered with about 1cm of my GEX soil, which is very loosely packed and light will stay on the floor already.. And I'm talking about the bigger piece here.. The smaller piece just sinks.. I got my tank on the 7th of November.. Started anchoring down the wood on the 8th, and started this method on the 10th, and today is the 14th.. All in all, less than a week..

Hope this helps.. But remember to anchor the wood down for maximum coverage..

Some might argue that anchoring the wood itself down is enough.. But come on, only using the method half a week and getting such results, I believe it does help more or less..

Just to add on.. Apparently the temperature that I thought was lowest (26.

that I saw was not the lowest.. My brother told me he saw the temperature dropped to 26.2 degrees on one of the hotter afternoon.. Amazing what 2 fans can do yar.. And surely not caused by rainy season, as that day that my brother mention was hot as hell..

**Jungle-mania** · 15th Nov 2009, 10:16

Not to burst your bubble, I normally get my wood to sink roughly around the same time after boiling once and sinking it. I will still try your method since I can vary the temperature here as much as 15 degrees since summer is on the way.

**nicklimzhiwe** · 15th Nov 2009, 14:54

Yo, Jungle, no bubbles being burst here.. Haha.. Remember I mentioned no boiling required..? Look in the title? But don't the woods usually sink straight after boiling? My friend's wood sure did.. Sunk like a rock..

15 degrees is nice.. But please do not let it fluctuate so much within a short amount of time over and over again.. I think will cause some stress to the silicon and glass if I am not wrong..

**Jungle-mania** · 15th Nov 2009, 18:51

I won't be putting it in a glass tank yet, probably in a pail and leave outside and let the weather do the rest for me.

**stormhawk** · 16th Nov 2009, 03:22

Interesting idea, but I have something for you to consider, if colder temperature is the key factor. Put the driftwood in a tub/container filled with water, and place in the fridge for an hour or so. That ought to make the process go a little faster.

**nicklimzhiwe** · 16th Nov 2009, 07:39

Originally Posted by stormhawk

Interesting idea, but I have something for you to consider, if colder temperature is the key factor. Put the driftwood in a tub/container filled with water, and place in the fridge for an hour or so. That ought to make the process go a little faster.

True.. Since when it contacts.. All it does is squeeze out water.. But since we're talking about sinking woods that can't even fit your pail.. How would it be possible to fit it in your fridge?

Okay.. Lets say you managed to fit it in, wouldn't it take up too much space..? Not to mention unhygienic, and our family member might kill us for that..

**vinz** · 16th Nov 2009, 12:02

Nick,

Did you do any experiments to determine that the wood actually sank because of the fluctuating temperature, or because of simple submerging.

Simple pressure causes air to be expelled. Air will naturally float, and if it can, it will try to escape from the wood. When it does, it is replaced by water. By this fact, we should turn our wood daily to let trapped air escape via different paths.

My understanding of the effect of temperature on the sinking of wood is this:
When you add warm water, it causes the air and water within to expand. The expanded air and water causes air (and water, but we can't differentiate it from the other water) to expand and be expelled. When the wood cools, the remaining air and water in the wood contracts and suck in water (since it is submerged).

Boiling just makes it go faster by causing maximum expansion. In fact, small fluctuations will never cause as much expansion as boiling.

I don't think freezing will squeeze out water. Wood is solid... it contracts and expands less than gas and liquid (if I remember my physics correctly). So the wood contracts, but the water and gas contracts more and still fits in the space leftover.

Freezing causes the air and water to contract, and cause more air to be sucked in, unless you soak the wood in ice cold water. But when it warms up again, the sucked in water may be pushed out as the air is deeper in.

I think the way to go is a repeated heating and cooling.

If you are unable to boil the wood, simply soak the wood in boiled water. One thing I did was to pad the container with rocks, sand and other heat-resistant (i.e. won't melt) materials to fill up the gaps between the branches so that I don't need as much water to soak the large pieces.

**stormhawk** · 16th Nov 2009, 15:33

Originally Posted by nicklimzhiwe

Okay.. Lets say you managed to fit it in, wouldn't it take up too much space..? Not to mention unhygienic, and our family member might kill us for that..

A fridge of a good size can literally fit a decent sized piece of driftwood, IF you took out the trays in the fridge. Those trays are usually removable so you can adjust the height for storing stuff in there.

It is fairly obvious that a giant piece of wood, say longer than 2 feet cannot go in there, but smaller ones can. If it can't fit into a pail, moisten the surface of the wood, put in a big plastic bag, tie it up and put it in there, since in your theory, cooler temperature helps the sinking to go faster. So in essence, it is being cooled too, just without immersion in water.

That or you can just pour cold water over it then just place in the tank to see how it goes. Same idea isn't it?

As for hygiene issues, many people keep frozen fish food like bloodworms in their freezer compartment, alongside their own food stuff, so why not a piece of driftwood?

Not that I recommend doing this, but it's still an idea.

For most people who are unable to boil their driftwood, they have used rocks tied or wedged among the branches of the piece of driftwood to sink it down. It works for most part, but takes a fairly long time before the wood starts to sink. Safe, and doesn't rely on boiling either.

**nicklimzhiwe** · 16th Nov 2009, 20:11

Hmm.. For me.. I just lift it out of the water and drop it back in.. Sunk like a rock.. That considered sunk?

Haha.. I got much to learn still.. Now I have cloudy water and a bit of surface scum..

**vinz** · 16th Nov 2009, 21:58

Considered sunk... but what are you replying to?

**nicklimzhiwe** · 16th Nov 2009, 22:50

Originally Posted by vinz

Considered sunk... but what are you replying to?

Sorry, was asking a question.. Cause I thought different people might have a different definition of "Sunk"..

**joydiv** · 17th Nov 2009, 23:37

why not just silicon a stone to the wood?
simple and fuss free...

**nicklimzhiwe** · 18th Nov 2009, 07:34

Originally Posted by joydiv

why not just silicon a stone to the wood?
simple and fuss free...

One of the best reason is that when trying to re-plant or re-scape the wood and taking it out of the water, a wood with a stone silicon-ed to it will cause a big stir and mess up your water.. That is my opinion from what I can imagine..

**Jungle-mania** · 19th Nov 2009, 00:16

Originally Posted by nicklimzhiwe

One of the best reason is that when trying to re-plant or re-scape the wood and taking it out of the water, a wood with a stone silicon-ed to it will cause a big stir and mess up your water.. That is my opinion from what I can imagine..

Spot on, the DW is still prone to floating even if you manage to stick a piece of stone to it to balance the buoyancy but it might be unsightly and it takes several times to get the correct spot to fix the stone.

**felix_fx2** · 19th Nov 2009, 02:02

Great to have so many opinions.

I soaked mine in boiled till the water cooled to room temp, then dumped them in the tank with 2 heaters (i think it was those Jager 250w) set at around 29c-30c.

I had no fauna that time and only my substrate in there.
Never considered the option of using silicon as i am still a greenhorn in aqua-scaping, Will be very prone to change the scape and silicon will just gets in the way.