[oeat07]

I understand, I wont put green wood into the aquarium just like that. I just cut two small peaces of root, cleaned them and dry them in the oven. I work at a furniture factory,so tomorrow I'm taking them with me and I'm going to apply several coats of barnish in order to completly seal them. The barnish I'm talking about is actually a type of resin, polyurethane, and once it's dry I don't think it can harm neither the fish or the plants,it becomes an stable plastic. I'm going to put them in a flower pot with aquatic plants just to make sure.

On the other side on saturday I'm taking your advice and going to a nearby river to colect some real driftwood.

Thanks a lot for your replys Seattle aquarist and davemonkey and greetings from Mexico City.

Or you can just go to a nice LFS and try to get one that is already treated… you can find a variety of colors and forms. Btw, I bought one like 6 moths ago, and I spent about 2 months soaking and boiling it until it stopped leaching the tannic acid into the tank water (red color). So, even when you get it from the store, you still will have to do some soaking and boiling until you don't see this red liquid leaching into the water anymore. But whatever you do, DO NOT put anything that you find in your backyard before properly treating it and making sure it wont change/affect you water and livestock.