While cleaning my fish tank last night, I stumbled onto a small piece of driftwood and a bunch of plastic plants that I had removed to clean a couple months back and never replaced. I cleaned them up and put them back in the tank.
When I upgraded from the 10 gallon to the 65 gallon tank, I decided to give up on some of the cartoony decorations and use aquarium driftwood instead. I bought one large piece and one smaller piece. The fish love the nooks and crannies they provide and the pleco spends half the day attached to them.
In my opinion, very few things improve the look of a fish tank more than aquarium driftwood. Before dropping it into the tank, though, there are a few things to consider.
Don’t use driftwood that you find out in the wild. You have no idea what kind of chemicals, pesticides, or other germs, which could quickly kill all of your fish. Go to a fish store you trust and look through their aquarium driftwood which is guaranteed not to contain those toxins.
It is really hard to tell how a piece of driftwood will look in your tank. I thought the ones we bought would take up a little more space than they really do. While at the fish store, take the pieces you like over to a display fish tank the size of your one at home and put the wood inside to get a real idea of how much space it will actually take.
Soak the wood. When you get it home, put it in a large Rubbermade storage container filled with water. Leave it there for a week or so changing the water every day or two. Your aquarium driftwood will probably leak a little bit of color and debris during this time. It is better to get rid of all of that before you put it into your tank. It probably won’t harm the fish but it will make your tank look dirty until the filter can process it all.
Leave some room in the tank. When I first added the driftwood, the fish tank had been running for a couple weeks and was full of water. Aquarium driftwood ways a fair amount and if you don’t remove some water it will get displaced over the side and onto your floor.
Rinse it off once in a while. Just like the plants and other decorations in the tank, it will get dirty over time. Running it under the faucet and scrubbing it down with your hands should keep it clean enough.
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