rotting

How to identify of driftwood has rotten and beyond use for aquarium use?! I suppose the degradation starts immediately after the wood is detached and put into water but when do you really just discard it? I have some malaysian(!?) driftwood in my tank... It has always been a bit soft and...

I have been trying to grow stem plants for the last 4 years with no luck. No matter what I do or how I fertilize the tank the tops thrive and the stem parts that are buried in the substrate rot away. The shoot out roots and rot away at the same time. My last failure has been with Red...