We have a pond in our front yard, its spring fed and we have fish native fish in it. Bass, Bream, other random fish.....

Anyway, my husband found some pieces of wood in it the other day, we think its pine and want to know about putting it in the tank with the oscars. He has boiled it twice and now its sitting in a bucket of bleach and water. I am not sure why he did this part, but sometimes its easier not to ask him questions.

After the first boil and bleach you could see a lot of the pulp on the surface of the wood. He scrubbed it, boiled it, and bleached it again. Its sitting in the bleach now. What steps do we need to take, if any, to make it safe for the Oscars?

Kim

The problem now is that the bleach will have been taken up by the wood so you would need to keep soaking it in clean water to make sure it was all out. Testing the ph of the water is needed too as you dont want it getting too low.

I definately would have not used Bleach to disinfect the wood because of how wood would absorb it. He better make sure that it's also in daily clean freshwater to be extra safe, that all Bleach was removed,or leeched out..I also just noticed that you mentioned that it may be pine.

Pine is not a good wood to use,it is considered a softwood.. You should only use hardwoods (oak, maple, ash, elm or hickory) for your aquarium. The sap and pitch in the softwoods can and most likely will create a syrupy mess in your tank. The soft woods will also decay easier than a hardwood. If you have a difficult time telling which type you have I suggest you use the following method. After the piece is dry, take the edge of your fingernail and depress it in to the piece. If it goes in easy then you have softwood. Get yourself another piece. Here's a good article on Driftwood. Curing Driftwood

Thanks for the reply ya'll! I will tell him when I see him, he's fixing a locomotive in Alabama and I wont see him for two weeks.

I am not sure if it's pine, not 100%. When he was boiling it the wood smelled like fat lighter when you burn it. Florida's state tree should be the Planted Pine, so I'm sure that's what it is now. I will "accidently" throw it out while he's out of town....maybe he will have forgotten about it by then.

Sorry to butt in here...

I bought some peices of driftwood at a chain store and they feel really soft to me. I haven't dried them out because there's java fern attatched, but would a petstore sell you a soft type of driftwood?

Are driftwood and bogwood the same thing?

i have had bogwood that seem to be a bit soft but was fine

Yes bogwood and driftwood are the same its normally brits say bogwood and americans say driftwood