Driftwood cleaning and soaking

I bought a bunch of driftwood off ebay from Lake Michigan ...How should I soak it to clean and sink it ....Whats the safest way ?

http://www.usafishbox.org/general-freshwater-fish-discussion-f4/driftwood-t2076.htm?highlight=driftwood

Some suggestions in this thread...

Clean it reall good with a pressure washer, pour boil water on it to sterilize it, then i that was my case, ill rinse it with your tank water before putting it inside..

I totally agree... boil very good in a HUGE GUMBO POT!
(just rememeber not put the crawfish in yet!!!!))))

Boil it

add some salt to the boiling water.. does the trick for me

Depending on what will be in the tank with the wood I would either agree or disagree.... some fish are not salt tolerant at all.

big gumbo pot+boiling= a good choice. but seriously i would power wash it first, and then boil it. But if the pieces look nice and dried out i would just boil it if your scared of any creepy critters being on it.

Its been soaking for ummm 3 weeks and about half has sunk ! Good deal!

Have you dunked it? See it it will sink?

they are submerged and part are sunk and a few still Semi Floating ...also soaked twice with bleach water

bleach water? id think you rendered your driftwood useless now. soak it in hydrogen peroxide to counter the bleach effect. but still i dont trust it

I've read people using bleach water. Thing is, it soaks up into the wood, and you'll have to soak it with fresh water changing it out often to get as much out as possible. Some even put chlorine treatments in the water, but not sure if that helps.

I collected wood from a park and after cleaning/preparing I have been soaking it for going on 3 weeks now. At first I soaked it with salt, now I'm soaking it in freshwater and changing the water out until all of it sinks. Then I'm going to heat treat them(if they fit).

ill make a new post on how to counter the effects of bleach

I have cleaned may peices of driftwood by just boiling it in very hot water with a few drops of bleach then rinsing well. Have never had a problem with it.

whisper wrote:

I have cleaned may peices of driftwood by just boiling it in very hot water with a few drops of bleach then rinsing well. Have never had a problem with it.

Done the same thing and many times i don't bother with bleach at all. If you can't fit the piece in the pot I just point up a large pot and slowly pour it over the piece outside. Do that a few times and make sure I give it a good scrub seems to work well. I have also got many pieces to sink by boiling it for a few minutes and then putting it in cold water.

Right Striking same here. No need for all kinds of chemicals.

Best I have found for bleached driftwood is a few days in the hot sun, I do that with my limestone also after bleaching. Good Luck