Problem with Aquarium Wood.

[StripySnailGirl04]

Hello,
I have a problem with some aquarium wood I bought a few months ago.
I have a spare tank, I filled it with water(with Chlorine remover) and put the wood in there to sink. After a few days, the water turned yellow and it stank ALOT. The wood was probably rotting.
So I filled the tank again, keeping the chlorine in the water, in hopes that the chlorine would kill the bacteria that was eating the wood. Nothing changed.
It was a little dumb of me to not record the water parameters. The thing is that I plan to use this wood in a new tank very soon(surprise!) but I do not know how to prevent it.
Does anybody know what bacteria is causing this and how to prevent it? This is kind of urgent.
Also, the wood was sold as aquarium wood but the label never specified what type of wood it is(maybe that is the problem?) but I got it from an LFS that is better than Pets At Home, so it should be trustworthy?

 

[Rocky998]

The water yellowing is just from the tannins of the wood. It's beneficial and completely natural

 

[StripySnailGirl04]

The water yellowing is just from the tannins of the wood. It's beneficial and completely natural

I know but why does it smell really bad? The wood is rotting.

 

[Back in the fold]

There are many on this forum who disagree but I always boil driftwood before use. You don't know what dried out in there. Boil it.

 

[StripySnailGirl04]

Ok. So that should get rid of the wood eating bacteria?

 

[Rocky998]

I know but why does it smell really bad? The wood is rotting.

That can be different bacteria in the water...

Like @Back in the fold said, sometimes boiling is a good option. Sure, it .ay cause the wood to come apart faster but that is better than watching your fish die off.

 

[jaylach]

The image looks like spider wood which has been reported to sometimes hold a toxic fungus. Has the wood developed any hair like filaments? If so this could be an indication of such a fungus. I have a chunk of spider wood in my tank that I got before finding the possibility of this fungus and it DID get these fine hairs but there are many kinds of fungus and mine seems to have been benign as I have had no issue with my fish and the hairs are now gone.

If I'm correct that it is spider wood it is actually azalea roots or rhododendron roots, From my research, if that is what you have, it should be fine. If the source is different as to the origin there could be danger. Best advice is that if you are not sure don't put it in the tank. At the worst it could make a good decoration outside of the tank.

I have bought all my plants and wood from https://www.wetplants.com/. These people are pros and fully prep the wood to the point that I didn't need to soak at all for tannin removal or to get it to sink.

As an aside never use soft woods such as redwood. They look pretty but are not for an aquarium. Only use hardwoods.

 

[Rocky998]

Ok. So that should get rid of the wood eating bacteria?

Yes, boiling for 15-30 minutes should kill it all

 

[Rocky998]

Make sure to switch out the water as the tannins leach.

 

[StripySnailGirl04]

developed any hair like filaments?

I don't think so.

 

[Slaphppy7]

Looks like azalea root (spider wood, as already mentioned above)

Soak in a mild bleach solution (10W/1B) for a day, then soak repeatedly in clean water (chlorinated is fine), changing the clean water daily

 

[StripySnailGirl04]

The image looks like spider wood which has been reported to sometimes hold a toxic fungus. Has the wood developed any hair like filaments? If so this could be an indication of such a fungus. I have a chunk of spider wood in my tank that I got before finding the possibility of this fungus and it DID get these fine hairs but there are many kinds of fungus and mine seems to have been benign as I have had no issue with my fish and the hairs are now gone.

Never mind what I said in the previous post. There were lots of hairs. Since it smells, I'll probably get some different wood, just to be safe.