My Wood is growing Fungus!

[thecichlidaddict]

So I bought several pieces of driftwood from the local fish store - the heavy stuff that has no problems sinking. I soaked them for several hours, and then I scrubbed them down under hot water.

A couple of days later I see a thick, white fuzzy looking coating them. It looks sort of like very thick and established spider webbing, except it is slimy. It made its way onto the sand as well. There seems to be small air bubbles trapped under it everywhere as well.

So, I proceed to pull out all of the wood, vacuum the top cm or so of the sand, wash it out really well. Then proceeded to scrub the wood again under very hot water (the pieces are too big to boil). I also did a 75% water change during all of this.

I put everything back, and not two days later the growth is back, and it's moving fast!

Has anyone dealt with something like this before?? Any suggestions on what I can try?

 

[Mogo]

Hi CA,

I believe what you are experiencing is mould. I also had this problem with a piece of driftwood that is way too large to be boiled, takes two of us just to put it into the tank

If you have an extra bathtub that can be used for the next couple days, fill it with very hot water and add aquarium salt. Let it soak for the day and then drain the water. Refill with hot water add salt, and let it soak again. Three treatments should be enough to take care of the problem. Then soak it in freshwater for a couple days, also changing the water out.

If you don't have an extra bathtub, you can pick up a plastic storage container that's large enough, or one of those big plastic garbage cans.

 

[Cian McLiam]

Ive had this from almost every piece of mopani wood and from lots of other types too. It seems to go away after a few months and has not caused any side effects or disease. It could be some kind of fungus that lives on soft pieces of wood that has not fully dried of sap.
I remember reading a magazine article about it a few years ago, they siad it wasnt harmful either but I cant remember any other details!

Ken

 

[lisa F]

I added a couple of pieces of soaked mopani would to the tank I am seeting up and the stuff appeared on 1 of them although it doesn't spread onto the gravel. The other piece was ok. The man at the LFS said that he sees it quite commonly and it resolves spontaneously and doesn't seem to cause any problems, he also said that it tended only to appear on the lighter pieces of mopani wood....

Hope it disaapears for you!

 

[lisa F]

oops- did not check for typing errors before sending that!

 

[thecichlidaddict]

Thanks for the responses

So far the fish don't seem to care one way or another - but It looks gross, I don't know if I can wait two months for it to clear! What is most recommended?

1. Remove the rocks and clean them off when they grow this stuff

2. Just clean it off while it is still in the tank and don't worry too much

3. Don't even bother, just wait and see if it clears up.

?