FinCo

Long time hobbyist (50 years). Still learning. I'm wondering about Aquascaping with arbutus or commonly known madronna, specifically if the dried, weathered branches will affect water conditions in my freshwater tanks greatly or minimally. Living in Anacortes, WA, we have an abundance of the trees and if there is anyone out there with experience using the branches I would be happy to swap product for info. Part of my newest scaping will include mosses and I'm also wondering if our local mosses can be harvested out of the woods and put in a tank, tied to (or glued) the pre-soaked branches. While out for tea in the woods during our last snow storm I noticed a moss that looked remarkably like the so-called Christmas Moss sold by commercial suppliers and it got me wondering. I went to a local stone yard and they gave me enough beautiful brown and golden Utah quartz like stone to do a small tank and I'm thinking about using my 5/16" and 1 1/4" diamond hole saws to drill some holes in my stone to "plant" some of the branches in...and/or moss and other plants. Another idea I have is to super glue a piece of plastic with holes drilled in it to the outfall of my filter to diffuse the H20 flow so it doesn't disturb the plants and substrate so much.