Dead Apple Tree Branch In The Tank

My husband cut back some apple branches at the weekend and gave me some very dead bits. (He knows how to treat a girl)

Anyway, I took some of the smaller branches, boiled them in several changes of water for about 3 hours in total, and virtually no more brown coming out then stripped off the soggy bark and popped it into the oven that I was currently using to cook a roast (branch well covered nothing touched the it, no fat or anything) until they were bone dry and definitely not scorched.

They looked really good so I tied some together with a plastic tie and dumped them in a bucket of water overnight.
I redid the small tank yesterday, added new plants (again!. P@H is making a fortune out of me) and these bits of tied wood standing up.

They look so nice that I'm thinking of doing the same with one of the bigger branches to put in the 60cm that I shall soon start cycling.

Have I over egged the pudding so to speak. Did I go too mad.

Somebody told me that all I needed to do was dump the branch in my water butt for a week or so, a  quick rinse then put in the tank. With or without bark. Surely I would need to destroy anything nasty lurking in the wood  by doing like I did before. Boiling and baking?

Got me interested. I found this useful thread, worth a read: http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/uk-wood-in-aquariums.17399/

Apple is one of the best trees for safe aquarium wood.

I assume from what you have written that the wood was definitely dead when it was cut. The chance of anything harmful to fish being in the wood is zero, the boiling and soaking are mainly to make it absorb water and sink.

I'm a great believer in making use of what comes free rather than paying high prices for essentially the same thing.

Incidentally, hardly any of today's so-called bogwood has ever been anywhere near a bog, it's just various tropical woods that have been soaked to make them sink. British native broad-leaved trees are just as good and more environmentally friendly, no "wood miles" (like "food miles")