How long before the wood I bought at the meeting sinks? I placed about 5 pieces of wood in my variuos tanks and they have been floating since the meeting.
It takes 2-3 weeks. It's best to do it in a separate tub if you can. That way you can place or tie a weight on the wood to keep it submerged and help it become water logged. Boiling the smaller pieces will speed up the process too.
The batch I got last weekend has all waterlogged but two pieces which are still "leaning' ( = touching the bottom but not fully resting on it). The rest is all lying on the bottom. A couple of the pieces are pretty hefty, but already sank. It has not tinted the water very heavily either, but I have changed the water 3-4 times. As usual, the first 24 hours was the heaviest tinting (in a 50 with heat & circulation, otherwise unoccupied).
I have not worked with manzanita before - this is the fastest-sinking wood I have used other than the dense bogwood which sinks immediately.
I use a 25 gallon tupperware container to soak my driftwood. I get it all in there and put a large rock over top of them....then fill with water. Ever couple days i change the water with hot water.
All the wood has been down since Sunday, so I took it all out and brushed it well, then resoaked. After 48 hours there is still some tint to the water, so I am still holding.
I have two pieces that I've weighted down, submerged, in a large plastic container and after three months they still don't sink. I change the water every week just to keep things clean, but nothing seems to affect these pieces of wood. Go figure!
Living near the water is almost as good as living in the water!
Balthamos - if the wood is not the manzanita we had at the last meeting, its water-logging can be expected to be much slower. For large wood pieces, months are not uncommon. I've used large safe trash cans for such use and it can take very long times.
