New driftwood

I got my driftwood in the mail yesterday. It was
sitting on my desk, when I got back from lunch at work. It's 8-12 inches, and it will fit very nicely into my 10 gallon tank. I just don't know if I want it sitting there in the middle of the tank, or slanted off the wall of my tank. I took my driftwood home to prepare it.








Since driftwood is from a natural environment it is a good idea to clean your driftwood. By boiling it for 30 minutes or more, doing this will help release the tannins from the wood. Tannins can stain your aquarium a tea color if your wood is not properly treated. Also kills any organisms that may be present in your wood. I will be boiling my wood later on this week a few more times to make sure I get most of the tannins out. It's kind of like steeping a tea bag.



Next I ended up filling a bucket with water, and some Prime. I then added the piece of wood to my bucket and will leave it in there for a week or so, depending on how long it takes for the water to be clear. My driftwood is Malaysian so it is already heavy and will sink to the bottom. One most wood it is a good idea to keep wood in water to water-log it so that it stays on the bottom of your aquarium. I have heard that it can take a month or so before wood is ready to put into aquarium.

I'll take pictures once I get the driftwood into the aquarium.

Introduction

I have been keeping fish since January 2008, when I got my first fish aquarium from my boyfriend, for a birthday gift. I bought my neon pink and purple gravel with the little plastic plants, and the cute plastic barrel. I got my first two Guppys, one female and one male. I used both for my cycling. I didn't really understand what cycling was at the time, and thought I could keep my two fish in there for a month before adding more. I didn't realize how important cycling was at the time, and not testing for ammonia, and nitrites would kill my fish. I guess I was lucky because both of them didn't die. I added two Rasboras and also a small Japanese algae shrimp. All are alive to this day.

After awhile, I ended up looking into my 10 gallon tank to discover baby fry swimming all over. I was thrilled! I ran down to my local Wal-mart and picked up a 5 gallon tank to host the fry in. I kept putting more and more fry in as my fry became old enough to have babies too. I was over stocked on fish. I gave some away to friends, and luckly I found a LFS store that would take them for free. I will never put, females Guppys in with males again, they really do reproduce likerabbits. Now I only have 5 guppys, two of my original ones and also 3 of their children.

As time passed, I bought a 55 gallon tank to host more fish. Thats when I started taking things serious. I planned my 55 gallon tank 4 months before I got it. I learned everything I could on what to do, to what kinds of fish were compatible.

I am still very new to this hobby, and so far, I am loving it!