[*GREASER*]

So driving around yesterday I found another huge piece of driftwood laying around someones side yard. So tonight im going to "borrow" it. I know there is tons and tons of it around some of the local rivers and locks. But the Hudson river and the Mohawk are really polluted and I worry about putting them in any incloaure with any herp.

 

[Guest]

So how do you know these people didn't get it from the Hudson?

 

[*GREASER*]

see thats what I have bee thinking.

 

[Guest]

And they might really like their "perfect" piece of driftwood..... :wink:

 

[joshsfrogs]

Is it true you shouldn't use any driftwood unless it is cypress or ghost wood? I think I saw that on Blank Jungle. Can anyone vouch for this?

 

[Arklier]

I suspect that any hard wood or wood from wet environments would do. I bought some 'Malyasian driftwood' from Petco before they stopped carrying it, and it has done very well in my tank for almost a year. No sign of rot or mold, and the 'stream' flows right over it with the end in the pool of water. Wish I knew for sure what kind of wood it was.

 

[Ed Martin]

I fly fish a lot and often find interesting pieces of drift wood on the stream and lake banks. especially lake Erie. I've been using it for years even some of it submerged with no issues. I just wash it good and let it dry in the sun on the roof of my shed. Cypress does not rot like regular wood so it works better in wet enclosures, but I thought ghostwood is just sandblasted roots and branches....at least that is what it looks and feels like.
Ed

 

[benmz]

I wouldn't take any driftwood from someone's yard. That's stealing. As for not using anything but ghostwood or cypress, not true. While the cypress won't rot very quickly (and all wood rots otherwise there would be a 100 foot pile of cypress wood in a cypress swamp from years of dead trees) other wood will rot faster. Depending on the size and condition of the wood it will take a few to many years for you to notice that it is rotting away in your terrarium. Also wood will rot extremely slowly underwater. There is not enough oxygen for fungi to be active. There is usually bacterial decomposition wich is extremely slow and limited to the outer surfaces of wood.

-Ben