Mopani Wood And White Fur

[Robbo25]

Ive had my mopani bogwood in my tank over a week now and last night i noticed a white fur over the surface.
what could this be?

Im pretty new so i dont know much about algae, moss, bacteria etc.

ive got 7 serpae tetras, 6 zebra danios. i did have 4 chinese algae eaters but got rid of them friday. they were in with the wood about 3 days.

if i had to describe it, its like a cobweb

 

[oldoak66]

The exact same thing has happened around my wood too! It is like a white "ghosting" all around the wood. I don't have any fish in my cycling tank yet but would really like to know what it is and whether it is anything to worry about.

Thanks

 

[Christine1014]

It's something that seems to affect mopani wood more than any other type, for some reason. Most people agree it's some kind of mold or fungus. It doesn't seem to harm the fish, but it gets pretty unsightly. I've heard a lot of people say they've taken out the wood and scrubbed it and it hasn't come back, but I had an ongoing battle for mine with weeks -- and I'd even boiled the piece all day before putting it in the tank. I tried a new piece with the exact same results. When I switched to a different type of wood I had no problems.

 

[Robbo25]

ghosting is a great term to describe it.

ive never known one peice of wood give me so much grief.

i feel like pulling it out and setting fire to it. id probably go up with it knowing my luck!

 

[vinylman]

I'm not sure I should tell you this, but what the hey; I have three large pieces of Mopani wood in my 4ft tank, and I've never had any trouble after they've been soaked in boiling water for ten hours before putting them in. Sorry........

 

[Robbo25]

no worries thats fine. I boiled it every day and soaked it for over a week before adding to my tank.
it still leeched and now ive got this fur.

Have you any fish that would enjoy this? maybe when i had my CAEs they eat it!

 

[oldoak66]

I must admit I regret putting the wood in my tank - what with the brown water and now the fur it doesn't seem worth it, even though it looks nice and natural. I might just take it out when I do my big water change at the end of the cycling and get some fake resin logs in there!

 

[Lorna]

Fungi on wood. Sometimes patches of whitish fuzzy Saprolegnia appear on bogwood that's recently been placed in the aquarium. Though wood in oxygenated water at neutral pH values is almost always decaying, however slowly that may be happening, you don't want to encourage visible patches of fungus. Resist any temptation to attack the fungus by adding something toxic to the water. Don't haul out the wood and boil it in saltwater either. Be patient. As the aquarium matures, fungus on wood won't normally trouble you; in fact, bacteria are much more prominent than fungi as bio-degraders in submerged environments. Stronger light will encourage a thin coating of sessile algae, which soon brings the protists that feed on algae and on the fungal spores; the algae and bacterial polysaccharides form the basis of an increasingly balanced biofilm that will appeal to grazers like Epalzeorhyncos siamensis or Otocinclus and other Lory catfish. And the result of their grazing is that, though the spores are everywhere in water, patches of fungal hyphae don't get a chance to develop. Tannins in the water reduce the bacterial and fungal load too, so it's possible that peat filtration would have some slight positive effect in controlling fungus. Found from: here

 

[Christine1014]

I'm not sure I should tell you this, but what the hey; I have three large pieces of Mopani wood in my 4ft tank, and I've never had any trouble after they've been soaked in boiling water for ten hours before putting them in. Sorry........

I'm jealous! Wonder if it's the way it's treated or something? I bought mine from one of the big chain pet stores - the only place locally that sells Mopani. The first time around I boiled it for 8 hours. Within two weeks I had at least an inch of white slime built up on it. Just disgusting. I scrubbed and it came back two days later. Ditto for the second piece i bought. My last batch of wood was something unidentifiable from a different pet store. It was submurged in water and had java fern attached to it. I figured if it wasn't sliming up their tank, it was probably safe!

 

[Robbo25]

some great adive people cheers for this. like oldoak i feel the same, but im not gonna give up. I will leave it and see what develops. Im due to add 4 corys at the weekend so il see what happens then.

it aint that bad, and doesnt look nasty (yet)