Cut off pointy ends of the toothpicks.
Make them all the same size.
Place toothpicks in a pot with water.
Bring the water to a boil.
Keep the water boiling at low heat.
Cover the pot with a lid.
The wood gets soaked in hot water and starts releasing tannin.
Boiling water evaporates fast!
Add water as necessary.
Water gets darker as more tannin leaks out of the wood.
In this example, I boiled toothpicks for about 5 hours and then removed them from the pot.
Basically, these toothpicks are ready to be used as driftwood in aquariums.
I keep them in a cup of water, fully submerged and ready for use.
I use toothpick driftwood and pieces of an old air tube to anchor moss.
Cut off a couple (about 5 mm long) pieces of an air tube.
Put ends of 2-3 toothpicks together and fit them into the air tube.
There is another way to assemble toothpicks together.
Put two toothpicks together, shifted a half length.
Secure them with a piece of air tube.
Attach the third toothpick as a continuation of the first toothpick.
Use another piece of air tube to secure the last two toothpicks.
Secure the first pair of toothpicks with another piece of air tube.
You can add as many toothpicks as needed in this way.
We can fit 2 or 3 toothpicks into a standard aquarium air tube.
In this example, I use toothpicks to anchor different types of land moss that grows underwater.
Insert strings of moss between toothpicks.
Secure the ends of the toothpicks with an air tube.
This one looks like a tiny Christmas tree.
I put it in a new nursery aquarium along with another type of land moss, freshwater snails, and seed shrimps.
October 22nd, 2017
I make nurseries in advance, before new guppies get born.
Here you can see the same nursery on March 5th, 2018 with guppies born on January 10th, 2018
Check description of the video for more details.
Have fun and happy aquariums :)
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