How long does it take driftwood to get water logged? repost?

Question

This is a repost from earlier. Thought I might get some more infomative answers by posting it again.

How long does it take for drift wood to stop floating?
I bought some drift wood at the lps the other day and I've been soaking it for days now. It's still floating. Did I just buy the wrong kind? I know some types never get water logged and will always float. It didn't say what kind it was but could it be cedar? It kinda smells like cedar- but just faintly? Anyway, how long do you usually have to soak drift wood before it becomes water logged and will sink?

Answer 1

It can take weeks to water log enough to sink on it's own.

As for the odor, scrape or lightly sand a small area and see if the cedar smell increases, if so it could be a very suspect piece of wood. I certainly wouldn't use cedar in a tank myself. You can also soak it in a clean container over night ( weight it down) and see if an oily film forms on the water. If so, don't use that piece of wood.

One "trick" that can help: On a really stubborn piece of wood, or when you really, really don't want to wait on it to completely water log, silicon it to a fair sized piece of slate that you can then hide in the gravel. That will hold it down in the tank whether it is water logged or not.

MM

Answer 2

it will take a while.

getting it so sink is easy, but you have to cure it first. Warm water for 2 weeks to a month will cure the wood. which is important to remove the tannins from the wood.