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Thought I'd have to wait until fall, but a cursory check of my yard yeilded plenty of last year's maple leaves. I gathered a plastic grocery sack full of superficially clean leaves, rinsed them well in tap water with a final rinse in dechlorinated water (why? because I'm a worrywort!) and put them in a 120 gallon tank.

As the tank fills, I have a lovely bunch of... floating leaves!

My husband, who thinks I'm barking mad, assures me that they will sink when they have had time to soak up the water. Will they? And how long does that take?

They will eventually waterlog and sink, but if you want to speed up the process, some boiling might help.

The Red Oak leaves I prefer take anywhere from a few hours to a few days to sink (unless turned into a nest by a certain horny little Hoplo). I find that if there is any water movement in the tank the leaves sink into very natural-looking multi-layered "drifts" as a result of the slow sinking.
Pete