# Malaysian Driftwood: Soak or boil?



## JohnsTank (Jul 16, 2016)

If you are following my tank thread, you saw the piece of Malaysian driftwood I recently got from Amazon. I have read several threads with methods to ready wood for people's tanks and those methods seem to be all over the place. Some are soaking for weeks while others are boiling. There are a few that actually did nothing but throw it in their tanks. The people that just threw the driftwood in their tanks had varying results; the least of which just turned their water a brown tint temporarily. I read one account though of a sudden breakout of insects in the tank. 

My tank is not running yet so I have a bit of time anyway. I'm really trying to decide between soaking (and for how long) or boiling. Has anyone undertaken this project? How did you prepare the wood for your tank?


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## Seattle_Aquarist (Jun 15, 2008)

Hi JohnsTank,

Welcome to TPT!

I use Malaysian driftwood in several of my tanks. If I have a pot big enough I will boil it for about 15 minutes, sometimes I have to do 1/2 in the water then flip it and do the other half. This plus a good powerful spray from hose usually kills anything living and removes most of the loose debris. That said with new wood I usually have two issues appear, first there is fungus that forms on the surface of the wood once it is submerged for a short while. Although unattractive it seems to have no effect on fish, in fact my cleaning crew of corydoras and one SAE seem to enjoy the fungus as a meal. The second issue are the tannins the wood gives off that gives the water a reddish appearance. I can tell you that new wood can give off tannins for months, even with weekly water changes based upon my first experience with this wood. Eventually I found an answer by reading posts in the forums, it was suggested to add Seachem Purigen to my filter. Within days my tank was crystal clear and the problem was resolved. Of course I had to recharge the Purigen regularly but eventually the tannins released became minimal. Now, if a tank starts to look 'yellowish' I use Purigen the the problem is resolved.


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## Watercrayfish (Apr 21, 2016)

If you dont want any tannings in your tank, boil the heck out of it.

Like said before boil all sides by fliping. The process is boil about 1 hour then drain and repeat, you can see the tanning in the boiled water will be getting lighter.


I used two pots, one to boil the wood and the other one to get the water to boiling temperature for next round (Just to speed up the process). I had to boil the wood like 4-5 hours in two days. I hate tanning so either do it or throw the wood. There was no visible tanning in my 40 gallon.


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## natemcnutty (May 26, 2016)

Don't tell my wife, but I use the sanitize cycle on our dishwasher to prep driftwood... 

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk


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## Niyona (Feb 20, 2010)

natemcnutty said:


> Don't tell my wife, but I use the sanitize cycle on our dishwasher to prep driftwood...
> 
> Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk


I laughed so hard at this... then I really tried to determine if the poster was serious.


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

There is another post where the person was using the dishwasher for Mopani wood. I just boil mine , mostly to disinfect, I do like tannins for the black water look and alleged benefits.


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## Nordic (Nov 11, 2003)

I paid for the dishwasher, nobody is going to tell me what I can and can't put inside it.


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## natemcnutty (May 26, 2016)

Niyona said:


> I laughed so hard at this... then I really tried to determine if the poster was serious.


Why not? If it's too big for a stock pot, I soak in a kiddie pool, clean it as best as possible, and then toss it in our dishwasher. I was trying to be funny about not telling my wife - she knows. It also helps to have a professional dishwasher for a catering business that actually has a sanitize cycle. To kill bacteria, you only need to sustain 160 F, and mine goes to almost 180 on that cycle.


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## Niyona (Feb 20, 2010)

natemcnutty said:


> Why not? If it's too big for a stock pot, I soak in a kiddie pool, clean it as best as possible, and then toss it in our dishwasher. I was trying to be funny about not telling my wife - she knows. It also helps to have a professional dishwasher for a catering business that actually has a sanitize cycle. To kill bacteria, you only need to sustain 160 F, and mine goes to almost 180 on that cycle.


It's quite genius! My husband would kill me. He already complained that we need to throw away the pot I boiled the last piece in - claiming it would "soak" into the metal pot.


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