[dustin2012]

Hey everyone i hope this is the right section for this...

Well we recently had some trees cut down, and i would like to know if any of this can be used in my viv.

Trees include: Black walnut, Locus
Rocks, and one plant i think is water chesnut? not sure if i'm going to add it since it does go dormant in the winter

I was mainly interested in seeing if i could use a few pieces of the wood but i'm not sure how if it will work. it's not driftwood, it's freshly cut hardwood. the Locus especially has some bark with strong characteristics. I would probably use a few pieces for the backdrop, and maybe a few actual branches inside.

see pics here...
Misc viv stuff - a set on Flickr

I've read that you can cook the wood for so long i think it said like [email protected], do you soak the wood first? will it char? I think it said the same thing for rocks, and plants were the 10% bleach solution @ 5mins.

My main question was can i use this type of wood? It's hardwood, but i don't think i've seen it mentioned on the forum. usually i see cypress, driftwood, grapewood, and one other one i can recall. I also have grape vines growing in the weeds i may be interested in using.

Let me know what you think, i know lots of people aren't crazy about using stuff from outside but we live in a rural suburban ish area and no pesticides, etc have been on them.

thanks for your help, let me know if the pics don't work it's my first time using flikr
dustin

 

[basket]

Re: Cleaning processing wood/rocks/plants for viv

Those types of wood would rot very quickly in a viv. I only use cork and I've never had any issues with it rotting or breaking down in any way.

 

[dustin2012]

Re: Cleaning processing wood/rocks/plants for viv

ohhh, i was hoping i could use them seeing that they were hardwoods, but if they easily rot i guess i will have to use the others. I just was just curious. The bark i'm thinking would rot quickly, and it might be nice to raise isopods with.

Well most of the wood will probably go to firewood and possibly making tables, benches etc out of it. haha i guess i better go get cutting it up so i can make more money for the vivarium start up

thanks

 

[Ed]

Actually if the locust is black locust it is very rot resistant and was often used for fence posts. I think honey locust is also rot resistant as well. Black walnut is also very rot resistant.

I would skip the black walnut as it will release jugalones into the area which can inhibit plant growths.

If they have not been in contact with the soil for very long, simply scrub them real well with warm water and a stiff brush. If they have crevices or loose bark, you want to be careful with them, as those pieces have a good chance to introduce unwanted invertebrates into the tanks (like snails, slugs or spiders).

Ed

 

[Ed]

Bake rocks at your own risk.. A lot of that information ignores the fact that many rocks have voids which may contain water. Heating the stone results in the water turning to steam or increasing the pressure in the voids, potentially turing the stones into the equivalent of extremely hot fragmentation grenades.

Generally a good scrubbing is all that most stones need. When dealing with natural materials like wood and stones, the many suggestions to heat the materials are often insufficient to guarantee that they will reach a high enough temperature to not only ensure sterilization or to necessarily kill most unwanted things. The reason is that many of the methods do not allow for penetration of the material sufficiently to get things that may be deep in cracks or crevices or protected by covering materials.

With the plants, a bleach dip helps to prevent the addition of many pathogens and parasites or unwanted animals but depending on the plant, it may not get those that are hiding in tight crevices (like those formed by the overlapping leaves in tank bromeliads). Ideally, the plants would also be quarantined to ensure that they weren't carrying unwanted things like nemerteans.

Ed

 

[dustin2012]

I want to say it's black locus, but i have to check with my parents to be sure, so maybe i'll use a few pieces of that and a few rocks.

From what you've said i think i'll just scrub both of them haha i was thinking exploding rocks in my mom's oven not so good haha. (*side note i already accidentally exploded a glass bread pan on the top, turned on wrong burner it's electric )

Thanks for the tips, i'll post pics as soon as i get it built and planted.

 

[Ed]

Having the rock explode inside the cage is better than exploding when you are removing them... Hot rock shrapnel all around a room and into you is something I would avoid at all costs..

Ed