Hardscape wood

[iDigit]

Hello all,

I am in the process of setting up a Trigon 190 tank. I have decided on wood as my hardscape base underpinned by some rock.

I saw some very nice wood at ridiculous prices at sevceral of my local FS and discovered that the wood was grape vine stems. I have free and random access to these if I just go for a walk in the region I live.

I am very aware of the commercial vineyard pest control treatments which has me wary of the fresher wood. However, the older pieces are interesting and if I have them for free, I am tempted to use them. I want to make them aquarium safe.

My thinking is as follows for treating the wood .... for my piece of mind :

1. Wash the wood with water and scrub off anything that is loose - wire brushing perhaps.
2. Putting my pieces of wood in an oven preheated @ 200 °C. However, once reaching 200°C, I place the wood in and lower the temp to 75°C and bake for an hour before switching off and letting dry out for the night. No opening of the oven till morning.
3. Waterlogging the wood in drums until sinking ...
4. Placement in tank for set-up and cycling before any livestock is added.

What advice could any of you out there give me in this regard .... or perhaps modifications to my method you may suggest ?

Looking forward to your reposnses

 

[zozo]

With Grape vines and wine industry you need to especialy carefull with Copper sulphate, this stuff is used for fungus control on commerciual vineyards.. This stuff, tho some medication against aquatic parasites contain it, it also can be exctremly toxic to aquatic life, mainly shrimps are the first to die from it...

I once noticed it, driving accross Italy and i saw blue leaves on the grape vines, i wondered what it was.. Found out it was the farmer spraying copper sulphate.