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Here is the instructions I used for preparing my driftwood. I found my driftwood along the Missouri River in NE Kansas. The link below takes you to the actual page where i got this information.

Driftwood Preparation

Driftwood is expensive to buy in stores and is rarely shaped the way you want it. The easy and cheap alternative is to go to a local water source and collect your own. I recommend using tree roots because the hold up better than branches do.

1. The first step is to go out and collect your pieces of wood try and find wood that has been out for awhile and is weathered.

2. Next you need to remove and bark and debris that is on the wood as well as snapping off any pieces you don't want of it.

3. If you have large pieces you may need to use your bath tub for soaking, but in most cases a sink will be fine. Fill you sink with hot water and add bleach at a 10:1 ratio. Then allow the wood to soak for around 12 hours fully submerged, you will need a weight to keep the wood submerged.

4. Repeat step 3.

5. After the second soaking is done use aquarium dechlorinator in double the dose of the instructions and allow to soak for another 2 hours.

6. After that you will soak the wood in hot water for 12 hours with no bleach.

7. After the final soaking is complete the wood will need to dry completely which can take several days depending on the wood size.

8. You will need a way to anchor the wood down if you don't want it to float. I recommend buying slate used for floors to do this. Drill a small hole in the center of the slate and into the wood.

9. Use a coarse wood screw slightly larger than the hole you just made to attach the slate to the wood. Be cautious not to over tighten the screw because driftwood is usually quite soft and will strip with ease!

10. Give the wood and weight a quick rinse to remove all dirt and dust and then you can put your new decoration in your aquarium.

The photo below is of my driftwood soaking in the bleach solution in my bathtub. The rocks are to keep it from floating. Even tho I did all this, mushrooms grow out of my driftwood occasionally, but only the part that sticks out of the water.

Driftwood Preparation

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Thanks for the driftwood information. How do you keep them weighted in your tank? Do you do what the web site suggested with the tile and screw?

in the photo of the driftwood soaking in my bathtub, you can see 2 rocks that are holding them underwater. If you look closely you can see that a hole has been drilled in each. One of the rocks is limestone, the black one is slate. I put a screw thru the rock into the driftwood, but those rocks arent quite big enough to hold wood that big underwater, so I loosened the screw enough so the rocks stay flat, and one end of the wood floats, which also serves as my basking area.
Unless you use a really heavy rock, the wood will still float.

As you can see in the photo below, I didnt remove all the bark. I think it looks cooler that way, but once its soft for a while, it may come off. Also, you can see that this log isnt screwed tightly to the rock.

One other thing, try putting your wood into the tank before you attach the rock so you can see how its going to sit. I didnt, and one of the logs sticks out farther than I wanted it to. I suppose someday I may cut off the end and fix it.

p.s. I got my 120 gal on thursday, im so excited.

Heres a pic of it on the not quite finished stand I built.
http://www.iturnrocks.com/images/hometank/new12001a.JPG

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Heres the previously mentioned photo of my new 120 gallon

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My husband is getting scared about the 90 Gal tank breaking our apartment floor. We are movign in a few months and he does not want to give them any reason to keep our deposit or make it hard for us to move. He wants to not buy the tank because of this. Also when we first moved in they asked us how big our tanks were and since we had just a few smaller ones they did not care but they might if they knew we were bringing in a 90 gal. so we don't want to ask them if the floor can hold it. I suggested leaving the turtles in the tanks they are in right now and just bringing the empty 90 gal in till we move. Then when we move we will know if our house can handle it and we can set it up there. Will an empty 90 gal. on an oak base still be too heavy for the floor? I assume it will not bee too much because there won't be any water in it.

No, it wont be. A couple of guys on a couch watching football would weigh more
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an empty tank has no weight to worry about. A full tank might. Water weighs about 8 pounds per gallon. Bump that up to 10-12 to compensate for weight of rocks, stand, glass, filters, etc. So I'd make sure your floor can handle 900-1000 pounds before setting up the tank (I have a hard time imagining a house so poorly built it could not handle that weight, though)

Thanks for the info guys. The tank is being dropped off this weekend. We will pay at drop off. They were nice enough to being it over in their truck for us since we only have a small car. As soon as we move to our house this winter I will set it up for the turtles.

O.K. folks,
Currently, most building codes require any floor that is for living space to be able to handle at a minimum what is called a live load capacity of 40LBS. per square foot. That includes all rugs, furniture, people, anything that is mobile.
So a 90 Gal. tank is what? 4'Lx1 1/2'Wx 2'H, but for our purposes the tank covers 6 sq.ft. of floor space. (Length x width). Add @50Gals. of water x 8Lbs.a gal. = 400lbs. The tank is approx. 100lbs. The stand and other stuff another 150lbs. gives us a total of 650lbs. more or less.
6 sq.ft. of floor space @40lbs per sq.ft. can hold 240lbs. safely.
You may be able to get specific floor ratings from your builder. If he tells you that your floors are rated for 60lbs per sq.ft. you must remember that 20 lbs of that rating are for the dead load, which is the weight of the floor itself. That leaves you with 40 lbs. for the live load.
I have a 2x6 frame supporting the floor under my 120G. tank.
If your floor is concrete, disregard all of this.
Bob, Philadelphia.

Thank you Bob. I will keep that in mind when buying our house. But while we are in the apartment I will keep it empty because when we moved in and told them we had turtles they asked how big the tanks were. They seemed satisfied that we didn't have a huge tank and said we could move in. I don't want to ask them if a 90 gal is ok because they will tell us no or kick us out lol. It's just better if we don't set the tank up till we move. We only have 6 months left here and I don't want to cause trouble. I will keep that information in mind when we have the house inspected though. Thanks.

Where my 120 gallon sits, is right next to a load bearing wall. the floor is composed of 2x12s with 1/2" plywood sheet at least. there is a 3-2x12 beam at one end of the tank, then one every 16 inches. Since the tank is right across from the fireplace, the 2x12s are quite short only 8 feet. Im sure this will be enough to hold. Also my stand distributes weight across the floor pretty well.
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Hi Everybody,
Those figures are "minimum" standard weight requirements for 1st and 2nd floors in residential construction. Most houses are much stronger than this. Apartments even stronger.
As far as spreading the weight around, that's what modern construction methods tend to do. BUT, there is still a maximum amount of weight a floor can handle in an isolated spot. What happens when you exceed these parameters is that the joist/beams directly below the excessive weight will tend to sag towards the center of the room and joist ends will crush where they rest on a cross support. It's not like your tank is going to fall through the floor some night. You would have to put thousands of pounds on your floor to cause that.
Anyway, when floors start sagging and/or crushing at the joist ends, the walls sag with the floor. What you end up with is cracks at the ceiling line and at door corners and lots of nail pops. Doors getting pulled out plumb, that sort of thing.
Natural settlement causes enough of these problems without helping the house along.
And like I said before, if you have a concrete floor somwhere you can't go wrong. Concrete installed properly can handle 300/400 lbs. per sq.ft. That's a lot of turtle tank.
Bob, Philadelphia.