Driftwood?

[Miss_Donna]

Hi this may seem a strange question but i have some driftwood in my tank and it seems to have white stuff on it like fur in a way anybody know what it is and if it can harm my fish or pollute my tank? all or any help MUCH appreciated thank you

 

[Corleone]

I had this with some new driftwood. It's some kind of fungus. It didn't hurt my fish, but it grew rapidly and made a horrible mess in the tank. Removing the wood and boiling it for a half hour, then hanging it to dry out entirely before putting it back in the tank got rid of the stuff, and it never came back.

 

[Miss_Donna]

Oh fantastic am going to do that now it looks horrible and my fish are actually eating it.Thank you for the advice

 

[loubega]

Oh fantastic am going to do that now it looks horrible and my fish are actually eating it.Thank you for the advice

hi i had this as well but on my bogwood....

can you tell me exactley what it looks like? maybe get a photo on here?

where did you get the wood from?
did you pre wash it/ sterlise it before putting it in your tank

 

[Miss_Donna]

Hi Lou i bought it from Pets at home i washed it and soaked it for 1 hour before adding to the tank.It looks like greyish fur lol thats the best way of describing it

Errrmmmm and as for the photo i dont know how to do it ...Lol so any help there will be good too........

 

[loubega]

Hi Lou i bought it from Pets at home i washed it and soaked it for 1 hour before adding to the tank.It looks like greyish fur lol thats the best way of describing it

Errrmmmm and as for the photo i dont know how to do it ...Lol so any help there will be good too........

ok its a start, i bought my bogwood from Pets at home too, its very cheap i boiled mine in a bucket for 3 days, and then left it to soak for a week, this was to remove the tannins in the wood.

Although the tannins are harmfull- thats the colour leaching from the wood by the way- they discolour the tank water and generally dont look that appealing

Anyway back to topic.....i added my bogwood after a week and half and i too started to get a white/gray/see-through fungus, i removed the wood immediaitely and soaked it in a salt solution and scrubbed with a scourer.....i then left it to soak in the salt solution for about 3 days. after that i washed it in fresh water and left it to soak for another 2/3 days to remove the salt content. Then left it to dry out for another day and then returned it to the tank....its been in there a week now and no fungus has returned...so it looks like it worked

i guess if it returns i will just start the process again.

A lot of the bogwood and other aquarium woods claim they have been boiled etc...but i would always leave the wood to soak for a week+

Oh i upload my pictures using photobucket, it creates a link for the othe rperson to click on and view your pics There is a link to how to do this on the forum, i think its under peoples photos etc....

 

[waterdrop]

Yes, good comments loubega - always like to hear peoples experiences!

Just a note.. I'm sure you meant to say that tannins *aren't* harmful, which is the case. If anything, they can actually be good for the fish, but humans usually love crystal clear, not yellow, water.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[loubega]

Yes, good comments loubega - always like to hear peoples experiences!

Just a note.. I'm sure you meant to say that tannins *aren't* harmful, which is the case. If anything, they can actually be good for the fish, but humans usually love crystal clear, not yellow, water.

~~waterdrop~~

sorry for the confusion, i did mean to say 'aren't' harmfull, was typing faster than my brain.....

hope the driftwood gets successfull cleaned and put back in!

 

[pippoodle]

when i added my mopani and this happened my snails and shrimps ate all the furry stuff off and really enjoyed it lol

 

[loubega]

when i added my mopani and this happened my snails and shrimps ate all the furry stuff off and really enjoyed it lol

just put my now clean/scrubbed/salted/soaked for over 2 weeks back in and the white/gray fungus has come back...im gutted....might just risk leaving it in there.....if you say it got eaten...however i dont have any snails or shrimps only 1 BN,

 

[Schmill]

Possibly just a bio-film? I have something similar over the inside of my tank doing a fishless cycle, and on the ornaments, heater, bogwood, airline...

 

[loubega]

Possibly just a bio-film? I have something similar over the inside of my tank doing a fishless cycle, and on the ornaments, heater, bogwood, airline...

sorry to hijack the topic miss_donna,

schmill, i added the bogwood after about 2 weeks of soaking with salt and it loks to be ok, got a SAE in there now too so maybe that will help to reduce the fungus/biofilm.....is the bio film safe?

 

[Schmill]

Possibly just a bio-film? I have something similar over the inside of my tank doing a fishless cycle, and on the ornaments, heater, bogwood, airline...

sorry to hijack the topic miss_donna,

schmill, i added the bogwood after about 2 weeks of soaking with salt and it loks to be ok, got a SAE in there now too so maybe that will help to reduce the fungus/biofilm.....is the bio film safe?

From what I've been told I believe so. I guess it's just a case of the lowest level of life thriving whilst there is nothing else in the tank to compete. Once fish / plants / snails etc get added I believe it should go.

 

[loubega]

Possibly just a bio-film? I have something similar over the inside of my tank doing a fishless cycle, and on the ornaments, heater, bogwood, airline...

sorry to hijack the topic miss_donna,

schmill, i added the bogwood after about 2 weeks of soaking with salt and it loks to be ok, got a SAE in there now too so maybe that will help to reduce the fungus/biofilm.....is the bio film safe?

From what I've been told I believe so. I guess it's just a case of the lowest level of life thriving whilst there is nothing else in the tank to compete. Once fish / plants / snails etc get added I believe it should go.

oh the tank had about 10 live plants and 1 BN, 2 bolivan rams and 15 harlequins and 1 dwarf neon rainbow, when i first placed it in there, now i have soaked it - twice- and added a SAE so it should be ok, also just started with nutrafin co2 as well,

just bit scared that it was harmfull so got it out straight away when i noticed it, has yours disappereared? did it look like a clear/gray mucus??

 

[Miss_Donna]

No it's like a reddy grey fur i guess but its not as bad now