I've posted this on a fishy forum but thought I'd ask here on the offchance.

Can apple wood be used in fish tanks?  I'm pruning the crazy tree at the moment and I've got a huge branch that as destined for a rat cage, but it would look absolutely stunning in my tank.  And the fish are too big for the hidey holes they have now :D

It's not had pesticides used on it, it's come off the tree because it's dead and it's died because the last people cut all the growth off it to make way for the privet hedge that's driving me insane.

Hi Nikita,
I'm maybe wrong, but I thought you could only use bogwood in tanks because it's well on it's way to fossilisation? I would be cautious about using applewood even if it's been dead for years, because it burns like the fires of hell on my woodstove.

I'm sure it would (wood) need to be soaked for AAAAAAAAAAAges before you could safely put it in the tank :(  and trying to varnish it never works, the water will get into the wood somehow ;)

I think the rats would get more benefit from it :)

You can use it, yes.

I would soak it for a week, keep changing the water to leach all the colour out of it, you have to do this with bogwood anyway. (it is after all just wood that has been soaked for a very long time).

I would bake it in the oven on a very low temperature for as long as possible before that to kill anything on it, and take any bark off, as that will fall off in the tank..... then do your soaking.

Then give it a go!

LOL

I never soak bogwood I just pour boiling water over it.  I love the colour it gives the water and all those lovely tannins make the tank like a blackwater river - great for my Bleeding hearts and other tetras :D :D :D

Beechwood and (dead) beech leaves are also supposed to be great in the tank ;)

Ah..... well i dont either as my tank is.... er was (now its full of rainbowfish....), an amazon tank so it suited the inhabitants for it to be tea coloured.... i figured most people like the clear water look rather than the brown amazon stuff... heehee.

I've never soaked wood before either, my tank is full of bogwood and mopani at the moment.  The fish (barbs and cats) prefer the stained water, and I noticed when I started using it years ago that some fish seem to grow a lot faster with wood in there - wood-loving cats especially, my sun cat and bumblebees really grew like stink after I added wood.  Not so much now but the bumbles are adults and the sun seems to be taking its time to get full size :)

I planned to soak it anyhoo if it is safe, so I will - baking it is in no way an option, when I said it was huge I wasn't kidding :D end-to-end it's 45", 24" wide and about a foot high.  Don't think my oven's big enough! :p

If all goes well I'll end up with a lovely-looking tank - much better than now as the pet shop sized pieces of wood are hopeless when confronted with 14" barbs intent on knocking everything down.   But my apple tree has a lot more wood to come off and it's all pretty sizeable :D the rats aren't going to miss out though - if I can ever get it off the tree (considering I have a puny pruning saw), there's an even bigger branch needing a lop!