Selecting Driftwood for Your Aquascape

Driftwood is the backbone of most aquascapes, but the piece you buy behaves very differently depending on the type of wood, and getting it to sink and stop staining the water is where beginners lose patience. Choosing the right wood and preparing it properly saves weeks of cloudy, tea-coloured frustration.

The Common Types and How They Differ

Spider wood, sold as azalea root, has fine twiggy branches perfect for a tree-style scape, but it floats stubbornly and grows a heavy white biofilm in its first weeks. Manzanita is dense, hard, and branchy, the classic ADA look, and it waterlogs relatively quickly. Malaysian or Mopani is very dense and usually sinks on its own, but it leaches strong tannins for months. Redmoor and bogwood sit in between. As a rule, the lighter and more twiggy the wood, the longer it takes to sink.

Tannins and Getting It to Sink

Fresh wood does two annoying things: it floats, and it releases tannins that tint the water the colour of weak tea. The tint is harmless and even beneficial for blackwater fish, but if you want clear water, boiling the piece for an hour or two, or soaking it for one to two weeks with a few water changes, pulls most tannins out before it goes in the tank. Boiling also waterlogs the wood faster. For a large piece that will not fit a pot, weigh it down with rocks or screw it to a slate base and wait; most wood sinks within a couple of weeks.

Making It Part of the Scape

Position hardscape before you add substrate and water, since moving a waterlogged piece later stirs up the whole tank. Driftwood is also the natural anchor for epiphytes: tie Anubias, Bucephalandra, moss, or ferns to it with thread or superglue gel rather than burying their rhizomes, which rot if planted in the substrate. Over a few months the roots grip the wood and the thread can come off.

The Bottom Line

Pick the wood for the shape you want, expect the twiggy types to fight you on sinking, and boil or soak to control tannins before it goes in. Then use it as the mounting point for your epiphytes, and let the biofilm phase pass on its own.