Driftwood

Java ferns weren't the only purchase on Sunday. Did pick up a few pieces of driftwood too. At $8 per kilo, they were quite cheap compared to those sold in shops elsewhere.

In my earlier post (History I), I talked of the driftwood floating up and essentially destroying my first ever planted tank. Once bitten, twice shy. Since then, I've always checked if the driftwood was dense enough to sink. Prior to this tank, I had one set up in the office and all I simply did was to silicon the driftwood directly to the base.

This time, I was able to check if the driftwood was able to sink since it was a farm after all with plenty of huge plastic drums to test it out. Sink it did to my elation. Back home, it was into the pail to let it soak. I had completely forgotten that driftwood needs to be pre-soaked to remove all the tannins. Tannins are harmless but it does give the water a weak tea colour that you see above. Not that good for planted tanks.

It has been soaking for 2 days now and the water has begun to clear up. So it's probably set for the arrival of the tank this Saturday. That aside, the driftwood that the java fern has been tied to is somewhat oversized. There's a huge possibility that I'll need to re-tie the java fern onto the driftwood.