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i bought a piece of driftwood to put in my 10 gallon tank, but it floats! how do i keep it from floating?

Soak it in water for a couple days. It'll eventually waterlog and sink.

ok, thanks!!

You can force it to sink by putting some stones on it (it will waterlog sooner, but mind the security) or, with the same effect, put it in boiling water for some time (and don't forget to let it cool off!!). Benefit of latter method is that anything nasty on or in the wood will die and won't threaten your fish.
Good luck.

Well, cousin dear, I'd like to see YOU boiling some of your "driftwood-trees".....

most driftwoodpieces are WAYYYYY too big to put in a cooking pan, so.....

get a huge bucket of an old bathtub or one of those black cement-thingies; put the driftwood in, dump some bricks on top of it and forget about it for a few weeks....

works every time, even with big pieces.

it's a small piece, so i guess it fits in a pan. thanks guys! i guess i'll try everything you said!

I just read that Java Fern rhizomes can't be buried in the substrate for fear of rot and that they really need to be on bogwood. OK, I'm a newbie and now I've got some work to do. This is probably a dumb question but how safe is it to pull water logged wood out of local streams for aquarium use? (provided a reasonably clean stream and that is would be legal... ) I wouldn't chance it without hearing a chorus of approval.

Jon

You have more possibilities: if you're not sure of the wood, you can always put the fern on stones with a rough surface, like lavarocks. It'll grow there happily.
If you or your fish don't like them, get a piece of wood from your shop (or from the local stream...), sterilise it (boiling water) or wash it thoroughly (hot shower) and place it in your tank.
Mind you: I can't see what's in the stream, but make sure the wood isn't already very soft; it's liable to rot in your tank. The wood supplied by LPS'ses is especially for fishtanks and therefore less "dangerous" (and legal as well). -))
Good luck.

i don't know what your laws are like in california, but it should be fine provided you take dead wood and do it sensibly (ie don't disturb nesting birds etc). thin branches will look good.

make sure you sterilise them first, you don't want to introduce any fish diseases. you can boil them if small enough, or the best thing to do is leave them in the sun for a couple of days.

best to buy though, but sometimes the stores don't have the right shaped pieces you are after.

errr....

chrisinha wrote:

racoll,

i know it has nothing to do with the topic, but what fish do you have as your avatar?

chrisinha,
Please use P/M function for such questions.

See review the forum RULES regarding trivial posts.

im sorry about that... im going to edit it!