Drift wood problem!

[Barry Tetra]

So...what happen is, I ruled out the drift wood in my tank weeks ago and now I want to put it back to the tank but the insect and moldy shroom infested it, is there anyway to clean it?

 

[Anthony1976]

So...what happen is, I ruled out the drift wood in my tank weeks ago and now I want to put it back to the tank but the insect and and moldy shroom infested it, is there anyway to clean it?

You could try soaking it in water with a little bit of bleach but not a large amount for a few days. After a few days start soaking in clean water and a decent amount of prime to neutralise any bleach for a few days . I didn’t think bleach could be neutralised by prime but quite a few people have said you can.

 

[madmark285]

what I read...

Bleach, rinse then let it dry out. At ambient temperature, Chlorine is a gas. When the wood drys out, any remaining chlorine will gas out. I cannot give you any supporting studies/links on this. I did discuss this with our tenant, a PhD chemistry student who basically said that should work.

I would add one more soaking period with Prime to neutralise any remaining chlorine.

For the tank I am setting up, I filled up an unused hot tub with wood I collected. I soak it for 3 days using a heavy dose of bleach. I then soak the wood for 4 weeks in plain water with numerous water changes. Since it is a new tank, I will add activated carbon to the filter to remove any remain chlorine before I add fish. I will also use Prime.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Hot water - scrubbing, scrubbing, and more scrubbing. Don’t use soap or anything that has been around the kitchen/work area.

The mold cleans off pretty easy. Not sure what you mean by “shroom infested”, like mushroom? If so, they should be really easy to scrape off.

 

[Barry Tetra]

Hot water - scrubbing, scrubbing, and more scrubbing. Don’t use soap or anything that has been around the kitchen/work area.

The mold cleans off pretty easy. Not sure what you mean by “shroom infested”, like mushroom? If so, they should be really easy to scrape off.

Yeah, you know mold grow off to be a big mushroom in a week....scary.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Yeah, you know mold grow off to be a big mushroom in a week....scary.

Oh, ok. Should be easy to remove.

 

[Colin_T]

If you use bleach, make sure it doesn't have any soaps/ surfactants in it because these can soak into the wood and cause problems to fish. Swimming pool chlorine is safer to use because it is pure chlorine and doesn't have surfactants in.

If there is mushrooms growing out of the wood, then it has mushroom fungus in the wood and this would suggest the wood has not been in water for long.
Can you eat the mushrooms?

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Can you eat the mushrooms?

You can eat anything...

 

[Barry Tetra]

If you use bleach, make sure it doesn't have any soaps/ surfactants in it because these can soak into the wood and cause problems to fish. Swimming pool chlorine is safer to use because it is pure chlorine and doesn't have surfactants in.

If there is mushrooms growing out of the wood, then it has mushroom fungus in the wood and this would suggest the wood has not been in water for long.
Can you eat the mushrooms?

I left it for only a week.

It's that type of mushroom that grow over insect brain, I don't know what it's called.

 

[Colin_T]

You can eat anything...

I can't eat anything, dairy products and grains irritate my tummy and onion is just plain nasty.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I can't eat anything, dairy products and grains irritate my tummy and onion is just plain nasty.

Just kidding, lol.