Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is it ok to put drift wood in a dart tank or will th ehumidity cause it to mold?

Choose the wood carefully. You will definitely get some mold, algae and other surprises on any of it, but that is not a problem. It is what your want to set up--to eventually become a relatively biologically recycling environment. This is never pristine and plastic looking. It will always be a bit messy. Cypress knees, ghost wood, manzanita, madrone, moutain mahogany and Osage orange all last a long time in humid conditions. Other woods that are hard, like many fruit woods will last a long while. Never use the conifers-- pine and fir or the resinous cedars. They rot quickly and exude terpenoids.

Drift wood is O.K. even if you don't know what it is. Washed up on a salt water beach or a fresh water lake, all the terpenoids have been rinsed away, and it's been "pre-cured--but you might want to sanitize it a bit. If from salt water, you should rinse it a lot, maybe boil it to get rid of the salt. From a fresh water pond just scrub it off with a brush under hot water, and use it.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

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