Fungal bloom from new driftwood took over tank

[KatNor21]

I added a large piece of driftwood to my 10 gallon tank. It grew the usual white-clear fuzzy fungus film, but instead of just sticking to the wood, it seems to have taken over the entire tank. It's all over my plants and the substrate. A couple of my plants died because their stems rotted. This is shocking and upsetting. I scrubbed the tank with a toothbrush and changed out a majority of the water yesterday. Nitrites have been rising and are now between 1-5ppm.

Is this something that will work itself out? I've heard that the bacterial fungus from new driftwood resolves itself and I've had other pieces in other tanks that did so without causing this kind of mess. My main concern is with the animals, as it was a fully stocked tank...

1 betta
5 pygmy corydoras
3 amano shrimp
3 nerite snails

They all seem to be fine and acting normally. Any advice?

 

[Colin_T]

If the fish are ok and not dying from it, then just keep trying to remove it physically. It might settle down over the next 2 weeks. If it doesn't, you might need to take everything out and wash it down, then start again.

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

Was the wood soaked underwater for a while, before it was put into the tank?
I've been soaking wood I intend to use in a tank for a fortnight now and, after the first week, I had a similar 'bloom' appear which only now appears to be disappearing.
(The water the wood's in gets changed on a regular basis).

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Driftwood “snot”. Just remove it and blast it off with a hose.

 

[Byron]

@Colin_T had the issue nailed down. If the fish are showing absolutely no signs of distress, such as respirating faster than normal, being lethargic more than before, etc, the fungus is likely not toxic. There is no way to know unless a microbiologist examines the fungus; there are dozens of species of fungus that can occur on wood, and some are deadly toxic while others are not. If you notice any change in fish behaviours, be prepared to remove the wood.

 

[Uberhoust]

I will step on a proverbial limb here and say this piece of wood should be removed from the tank. I believe it will cause some issues for some time because it hasn't been aged enough and it occupies a large volume in the tank. The issue might go away but then again it might not. In addition to the white fungal growths it looks like a yellow slime mold growing near the top that is common in the pacific northwest. It might not affect your fish but it might influence your tank maintenance. The bark is still strongly adhering to the wood in some locations, see the chainsaw cut, a well aged piece will not have the bark adhering that strongly. The amount of growth of fungal material suggest this piece has a lot of nutrient still available, kind of like placing a lot of fish food in your tank that the fish cannot eat.

How long has the piece been in the tank?

Do you know the species? Looks like Red Alder root but there is not enough information in the image to id it confidently and the color is not right, with the yellow color it could also be Douglas Fir. Was it collected locally or purchased? Looks like a local collection.

I would age it outside alternating between soaking and drying for some time before I would place it is my tank.

 

[KatNor21]

Was the wood soaked underwater for a while, before it was put into the tank?
I've been soaking wood I intend to use in a tank for a fortnight now and, after the first week, I had a similar 'bloom' appear which only now appears to be disappearing.
(The water the wood's in gets changed on a regular basis).

I soaked it for a day and overnight, but perhaps that wasn't long enough.

 

[KatNor21]

@Colin_T had the issue nailed down. If the fish are showing absolutely no signs of distress, such as respirating faster than normal, being lethargic more than before, etc, the fungus is likely not toxic. There is no way to know unless a microbiologist examines the fungus; there are dozens of species of fungus that can occur on wood, and some are deadly toxic while others are not. If you notice any change in fish behaviours, be prepared to remove the wood.

Fish seem perfectly fine, especially the betta, still swimming around his daily patrol like he owns the place. The shrimp were hiding in a corner most of the time, so I relocated them to a bigger and cleaner tank just in case.

 

[KatNor21]

I will step on a proverbial limb here and say this piece of wood should be removed from the tank. I believe it will cause some issues for some time because it hasn't been aged enough and it occupies a large volume in the tank. The issue might go away but then again it might not. In addition to the white fungal growths it looks like a yellow slime mold growing near the top that is common in the pacific northwest. It might not affect your fish but it might influence your tank maintenance. The bark is still strongly adhering to the wood in some locations, see the chainsaw cut, a well aged piece will not have the bark adhering that strongly. The amount of growth of fungal material suggest this piece has a lot of nutrient still available, kind of like placing a lot of fish food in your tank that the fish cannot eat.

How long has the piece been in the tank?

Do you know the species? Looks like Red Alder root but there is not enough information in the image to id it confidently and the color is not right, with the yellow color it could also be Douglas Fir. Was it collected locally or purchased? Looks like a local collection.

I would age it outside alternating between soaking and drying for some time before I would place it is my tank.

I don't see any mold growing. I think you're seeing a difference in color which is caused by the fungus not growing as much on the top of the wood. It's growing more on the bottom.

It's been in the tank for about 2 weeks. It's mopani driftwood from Petsmart.

 

[itiwhetu]

We have this problem often here. When I'm selecting wood it is most important that it is aged. I only use drift wood that has obviously been in the ocean for sometime and therefore has no sap content. I often see on this site pieces of wood being put into tanks that look fresh, be careful of those, it is the sap content of the wood that causes issues. Try and find wood that is completely void of life.

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

I soaked it for a day and overnight, but perhaps that wasn't long enough.

Definitely not.

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

That's an awesome looking piece of wood, I can see why you got it! Sorry it's causing you this hassle though. I agree with the above advice to take it out, do what you can to scrub/boil/dry it out, then stick it outside and let it age for a while. I don't think it'll harm your fish if it hasn't already, but I suspect that it'll keep producing the gakky stuff faster than you can clean it up... With the nitrites rising and putting your lifestock at risk, I would take it out immediately and get the water back to safe levels, and keep manually removing the yuck from everything.

I had a similar problem. Bought this piece in a LFS, cleaned it in water as hot as I could stand, poured some kettles of boiling water over it, boiled the base in a pot for a while before flipping it and trying to boil the other ends etc. Then I soaked it until it waterlogged. All looked okay while it was soaking, so I stuck it in my otocinclus tank;

It was great for about a week, developed the usual ethereal biofilm that the otos were cleaning off, but then this happened;

Not the normal biofilm! Clearly some sort of fungus. The fish were fine, but I took it out and scrubbed and boiled it again, got it looking like new, and put it back in.

But the fungus came back again.

I took it out and decided to try scrubbing it with salt. Since salt is mildly abrasive and has anti-fungal properties, figured it was worth a try. Sprinkled salt all over it and scrubbed at it with a bristle brush, then soaked it in salty water for a while before rinsing and doing the boiling water again to remove the salt. Put it back in the tank.

You can guess what happened;

Since the fish were doing fine and I was sick to death of scrubbing this thing, I watched and waited for a while to see how it would develop. Thought that maybe it would go away after some time, but it only got worse every day. Got so ugly and annoying to me after a week or two that I took it out and resigned myself to the fact it wouldn't work. Gave it another clean and left it exposed to the elements in the garden to weather and dry out. It's been out there for six months, I'll probably give it a year before trying again; by which time the tanks probably won't have room for it *sigh*

Mine didn't affect the water and plants or cause such a mess to clean up at least! Sorry to see what's happened with yours, I know that must suck to try to clear up. If you can't or don't want to leave it outside for months (and there's no guarantee it won't do the same thing again after a year in the garden either!), you could try taking it back to the store, show them the photos and ask for a refund or exchange. I think you'd have every right to get your money back so you can get something else!

 

[Deleted member 149562]

A few years ago I had a lump of Mopani that went far more furry than the usual. Picked the brain of a fishy friend of mine who suggested adding a 100g bag of Fluval Clearmax to the filter or to hang it in the aquarium somewhere close to the offending wood.

It worked...not sure how, why or if it was actually anything to do with the Clearmax for sure but the fur went after a few days and never returned

So in my cupboard of "fishy things to try when all else fails", I have sachets of Clearmax waiting to be used when needed.

 

[KatNor21]

Definitely not.

I was only soaking it because of the tannins, not because of the fungus. I knew fungus would happen, but didn't expect it to be so bad.

 

[Bruce Leyland-Jones]

I was only soaking it because of the tannins, not because of the fungus. I knew fungus would happen, but didn't expect it to be so bad.

Even for tannins, you would be expecting to soak the wood for a week to a fortnight, to get rid of tannins...and a month to practically eliminate them...depending upon the wood.