how long would it take piece of drift wood to get waterlogged???

Question

and whats bad about drift wood if anything??

Answer 1

Well it depends on the size of the wood actually, the thicker it is the longer it will take to get water logged. However for most aquarium size pieces I would hazard a guess of two days before you will be fully saturated. The dangers of driftwood are mostly related to not preparing it properly for your tank. Driftwood should be stripped of all bark, then soaked in a bucket for at least five days, preferably more. While soaking, change the water everyday. If you have a large enough pot it is very advisable to boil your driftwood, I recommend a half hour on a light boil. The whole point of the soaking is to leech out pollutants and tannins and to try to get some of the bacteria and other plants and animals out of the wood. Boiling of course is good at killing bacteria, plants, animals, etc that are on and in the wood.

Answer 2

It usually takes several weeks. Thicker driftwood will take longer than thinner pieces. You can speed up the waterlogging process and boil it on high for an hour or so. Then it will be waterlogged enough to sink and you can put it in your tank once it cools.

There really is nothing bad about real driftwood. Some people seem to think it rots, which is somewhat true, but as long as you buy aquarium driftwood it will never rot. They are a certain type of wood which is very dense and will never rot underwater. I'll try and find out what types of wood they are for you.

EDIT: OK here are the types of driftwood that will never rot:
African or Savanna Root
African Driftwood
Malaysian driftwood

Answer 3

There are diferent species of tree... I have some that sank like bricks from malaysia... others I need 30 lbs of slate to hold down after ages.

Driftwood releases tanins and decomposing organic materials into the water. It will lower the ph of the water and often soften the water. Its ideal for biotopes that have slightly acidic water like central / south america. It is not ideal for african cichlid tanks since they prefer harder and more ph basic water. The ph lowering tendancy of the driftwood will will fight this. In any case the effect is usually pretty minute, so its no big deal most of the time.

Answer 4

It depends. I had a piece that took about 3 weeks and I bought a cheap piece that I had for 3 years fully submerged and it still floated even with the slate on it. I had to place a rock on the slate to hold it down....It depends on the wood.