Smoke?

[sharkweek178]

I saw something bizarre when I was doing a water change on my 29 gallon yesterday and I cannot figure out an explanation.
After I drained about half the water in the tank and some Manzanita driftwood was sticking out of the water, I saw what appeared to be a wisp of smoke coming off of it. You know how when you light wood on fire then put it out and there's that thin trail of smoke after? That's what it looked like. The aquarium lights were on, but they aren't hot. The wood itself was cool to the touch. The only thing electrical in the tank was the heater and that was unplugged for the water change.
I tried an internet search but all I could find were people describing strands of biofilm that looked like wisps of smoke. And all those occurred in the water. This happened to the wood that was out of the water.
I've refilled the tank since then and haven't seen anything unusual in the fishes' behavior or anything else since then.

Anyone have any ideas of what this could have been?

 

[gwand]

You have to stop eating those magical mushrooms!

 

[GaryE]

Watch your heater. I got my first equipment zap in about 10 years a week or so back - a fault in an older powerhead that hadn't triggered the GFI outlet. It hurt.

Electricity and water...

But if the heater was running full tilt when you unplugged it and the room was cool, you may have gotten simple evaporation coming off of it.

If you write a song about the experience, please have better lyrics than Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water. That was awful writing. "Some stupid with a flare gun..."

 

[sharkweek178]

Watch your heater. I got my first equipment zap in about 10 years a week or so back - a fault in an older powerhead that hadn't triggered the GFI outlet. It hurt.

Electricity and water...

But if the heater was running full tilt when you unplugged it and the room was cool, you may have gotten simple evaporation coming off of it.

If you write a song about the experience, please have better lyrics than Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water. That was awful writing. "Some stupid with a flare gun..."

I always unplug the heater 15 minutes before draining the water.

 

[Colin_T]

Maybe the wood had some air trapped in it and when it was out of water a small amount mixed with moisture on the wood and blew something that looked like steam. Maybe a fungus releasing spores. No idea really. Pity you didn't get a video, would have been rather cool to watch.

 

[sharkweek178]

Maybe the wood had some air trapped in it and when it was out of water a small amount mixed with moisture on the wood and blew something that looked like steam. Maybe a fungus releasing spores. No idea really. Pity you didn't get a video, would have been rather cool to watch.

I'll have my phone on standby for next week's water change.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Watch your heater. I got my first equipment zap in about 10 years a week or so back - a fault in an older powerhead that hadn't triggered the GFI outlet. It hurt.

Electricity and water...

But if the heater was running full tilt when you unplugged it and the room was cool, you may have gotten simple evaporation coming off of it.

If you write a song about the experience, please have better lyrics than Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water. That was awful writing. "Some stupid with a flare gun..."

A most excellent guitar riff, though.

No idea about your wood smoke. Really, really weird.