Wild collected drift wood

Question
QUESTION: I'm about to buy a new tank and I'm highly considering adding driftwood to the
setup. However I don't feeling like paying for wood because that just seems
ridiculous when it's all over the place. There is plenty of wood that I can find
of the right shape in size in the wild. I am aware that wild collected wood can
release toxins and bacteria into the aquarium so I was wondering what the proper
disinfecting procedures are? I have heard of actually throwing the wood in the
freezer for a few days to kill any bacteria or anything living. I've also heard
of boiling it and throwing it in a bucket of 1 cup bleach per 5 gallons of
water. To me, the freezing method seems the easiest but I'd like to know your
opinion on which is also the safest.

Thanks, a lot for your time

ANSWER: Hey garrett,

Definately easy choice there, whenever i find a new piece of wood i just use the boil/soak method you've probably seen alot of different methods. I boil it for about 5 hours.. just to be sure, i'm sure i am overdoing it but better safe then sorry. If the woods bigger then your biggest post, just keep roating it once a hour. Turst me nothing's going to be alive for a while after that lol

Then after your done that , get a huge bucket and just soak it for about 2 weeeks (longer the better) , this will remove all the rest of the acid from the wood that turns your aquarium that browny color. This wont cure it completely that will takes months and months, but that will help a sure lot.

Hope that works for you dude. I wouldnt use the bleach thing, i just dont get the whole using bleach to clean my fish stuff espeically since we cant use soap lol..i'm sure there's a good explination somwhere :)

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---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks a lot for your time. The information really helped. I'm sorry I didn't ask this before but are there any guidelines as to what types of wood I should use or stay away from?

Thanks again...

Answer
Guildines... i woudlnt think there are really strict ones in place.  What i would probably suggest is wood that's already been waterlogged such as ones that you find in the river... or are currently in there. I wouldnt put any that i find in a forrest.. but that's just my personal oppinion :)