Habitat - Indoor :: Sterilizing wood?

[GouzlanTheAmerican]

I am redoing my turtle tank setup and i want to put this big log i found in my side yard (we cut down 5 trees around our house) and use it as a basking dock. I was wondering how i sanitize a log like that. its a medium size log. I put it in the oven at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes but it barley got it hot. any help on sanitizing this thing?

[steve]

I previously remember people mentioning boiling wood, baking wood or using bleach (you'll need to search for the recommended ratio).

But if this is just wood from a regular tree, then you might have to do more research in it. Aside from sterilization, you need to find out how that wood could effect the water.

[GouzlanTheAmerican]

were should i look for this kind of information? it was a native tree here shouldnt have anything in it but i want to make shure it dosnt introduce any bacteria into the water or alge. no chemicals were used on the tree... just water and dirt.

[marisa]

I'm not sure if using wood from a regular tree that hasn't been fully dried out would work if a portion of it is being submerged continuously (in the wild it does, but the water in constantly being renewed). For wood, most people use driftwood or something that's water resistant like corkbark. What kind of tree is it (saying "native" doesn't really tell that much)?

[GouzlanTheAmerican]

the tree was a "white ash". the wood has been dried out for about 2 years. i just boiled it in water for a while. kinda hard cuse it was soo big.

[GouzlanTheAmerican]

ok so i bpiled the log and i straped it to the floor of the tank and jeffery seems to like his new setup alot. i'll post some pics if i can get a hold of a camera around here