"64.8L Passionately Curious": Treatment for Driftwood and Stones

Treatment for driftwood and stones/rocks takes time. Hence, it would be better to prepare it in advance. 

After getting the driftwood, the next day I soaked it in water so that tannin can be leeched out slowly. After 2 days, it can be seen tannin had been leeching out but not so much. So, I decided to boil the driftwood so that the process of tannin leeching could be accelerated. Driftwood was boiled for a few hours and tannin was leeched out a lot as can be seen from the tea colour of the boiled water. It was boiled totally about 6-7 hours and after 3 times changing water, water seemed much clearer and should ready for hard-scaping. Boiling driftwood also minimize or even eliminate the chance of having unwanted snails or algae or any harmful parasites attached to the driftwood before it is placed in the aquarium. 

My kid's old bathtub was used for driftwood soaking purpose :P

Water was clear at first

And it became brownish after 2 days 

Boiling driftwood in the biggest pot that I have, to accelerate tannin leeching process and disinfect the woods.  

After one hour

After 3 hours, I have some tasty Teh-O colour :P

After the 2nd water change, now I have green tea colour. :)

And after boiling, leave the wood to dry and cool off before using

For the stones or actually river pebbles, I soaked them in water for 2 days and before using I also pour the boiling water on them and soaked overnight in the pot. Interestingly, the pebbles absorbed and keep the heat extremely well as the next day morning when I took them out from the pot, I still could feel the water was very warm. No wonder in the old time, people use to heat the rock, wrap it in the blanket and use that to keep them warm during winter time. With the same reason of boiling driftwood, with this disinfection method, I don't think any kind of harmful parasites could survive under 100 degree C hot water.

Stones were put in the pot and boiling water was poured in for disinfection. They were left overnight there in the pot.

After disinfection, they were brought out to dry and cool off. I also measured the weight of all the rocks, about 10kg in total.

After the treatment and disinfection, now the driftwood and stones are ready to use for hardscaping. So excited and cant wait to explore my aquascaping journey ahead. :) Yay!