Help Finding Driftwood!

[DeadHorrorFan]

Well, I need some nice branchy driftwood for my 55 gallon South American project that's about to get underway. The only problem is, none of my LFSs carry any! Does anyone out there have any ideas? Freshfish, I'd REALLY like to get a cluster like you've got in that recent tank of yours!

[freshfish]

Mine is Manzanita wood. I bought it from Tom Barr over at www.plantedtank.net. There's quite a few people over there (who live on the west coast) who collect and sell manzanita. www.manzanita.com is another place to find some, though you may not be able to get a picture of the exact package you're getting.

[DeadHorrorFan]

I found the Tom Barr stuff while searching around last night. Thanks for the info! I'm going to wait for him to post another batch as the piece I wanted out of what he recently put up is already taken. Does this stuff stain water like the old "Malaysian" driftwood?

[freshfish]

Yep, it will release tannins, too. I just keep Purigen in my filters- makes the water crystal clear, and you can regenerate it and re-use it for years and years.

[ScottFish]

Thanks for the driftwood links Freshy. Although, I couldn't find any wood on the PlantedTank site. Did I miss it?

[freshfish]

You must have- check the PowerSellers forum: http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/spons ... -specials/

[Studman0143]

I will be posting some online for sale soon too. I just collected some from here in Utah and it's all soaking and trying to get waterlogged as we speak. I more have big pieces of it. I don't have anything that would look like a tree, which I'm assuming is what you are going for? In about 2 weeks I'll have a website created and hopefully pictures as well.

And what is this Purigen stuff you talk about FreshFish? What does it do and where do you get it?

[freshfish]

Purigen is a chemcial media made by Seachem. Basically it's a carbon substitute, and unlike carbon it can be regenerated with bleach and used over and over. I usually get mine from Big Als: http://www.bigalsonline.com/Fish_Filter ... tc=default

It has a special "affinity" for compounds that will discolor water, like ammonia and tannins. It's a pale off-white when "fresh," and then a deep brown/black when it needs to be regenerated again.

I've been using it for several years and have it in all my filters now- I really love the stuff.

[DeadHorrorFan]

I actually wouldn't mind the tannins in the water seeing as this is going to be an Amazon tank....

[freshfish]

Tannins block light, though, which is bad for plants. You won't find many if any aquatic plants in the wild in areas with lots of tannins- mostly just plants either floating or growing out of the water so they can get sunlight.

So if you want a planted tank, you'll have to be careful with the amount of tannins in the water.