Simple Driftwood & Sand Question(S)...

[christylee]

The time has come and I am switching from having cichlids for years now to a planted community. I had one left and instead of letting him live out a long boring life on his own..I re-homed him as of yesterday. He's now in a ridiculously large tank though so I'm sure he's loving life! 50 gallons to 200... I'd be happy.
 
Anyway, my question is my substrate is primarily sand but I had mixed in quite a deal of crushed coral.. should I sift it out?
 
Also I went down to my LFS and picked up a large piece of driftwood. Soaked it..added it to the tank and now I have like a clearish/white hairy algae looking substance on everything..glass and wood..what is this?
 
Thanks in advance!

 

[DrRob]

Substrate, depends what your plan is, if you want anything soft or acidic then you'll struggle with crushed coral in the substrate. I hate to say it but you may find it far simpler to replace than remove it if it's mixed in.
 
The white stuff is mould, it happens a lot, wipe it off and it'll eventually stop, some fish and shrimp happily eat it.

 

[Byron]

On the wood, that might be a fungus.  Do you know the type of wood?  Perhaps post a photo if you can.  There are many species of fungus, and while many are harmless, some are highly toxic.  I have experienced the latter.  Without microscopic examination by a microbiologist it is impossible to tell the fungus species.  More than one aquarist has killed of tanks of fish from certain fungi, so one has to be careful.
 
[DrRob posted as I was typing...if this is just mould, fine.  A photo might clue us in.]
 
On the sand, first question is what fish you wish to keep, and what is the GH and KH of your tap water?  Crushed coral is calcareous, and slowly dissolves (very slowly) adding calcium to the water which raised the GH and pH.  This may or may not be desirable, depending upon your answers to the questions.  If the fish are to be hard water, like livebearers, most rainbows, Central American, then this wouldn't likely be an issue, and might be helpful if you have soft tap water.  But if the intent is soft water fish, I would replace the sand.  This need not be expensive; I use Quikrete Play Sand (Lowe's and Home Depot carry this) in all but one of my planted tanks, and I like it very much.  If your tank is around 50 gallons, one 25 kg/50 lb bag might be sufficient, at a cost of around $6.
 
Byron.

 

[christylee]

Thanks to both of you!
 
I tried taking a picture..but I had difficulty getting an accurate shot. I did a google search and found this..which is almost identical besides the fact the stuff in my tank is like pure bright white. I'll try scrubbing it and doing a good water change.
 

 
 
I didn't plan to add new fish until my aquascaping is all in check but I plan to keep tetras, neons & black skirts mostly, and some cories, maybe a guorami. To be completely honest, I haven't checked my water hardness in so long because my LFS is literally right down the street..not even 2 miles. BUT that being said if I remember correctly it's on the softer side, which is why I added the crushed coral.
 
The sand in my tank is actually pool filter sand. I have some leftover thats been hanging out in storage under my tank so I could switch out the majority of it.

 

[Byron]

I would change the sand with those intended fish.  And remove all of it and use your spare.  It doesn't take much depth.  In my 115g I have three inches even, but in the 70g I have about A 2-inch depth.
 
I would check with your municipal water people on the GH.  This has a bearing with plants; most sources suggest no softer than 4 dGH [= 71 ppm].  This is for the hard minerals.  Depends a bit on the plant species.
 
The photo appears to be brush algae along with detritus (the white).
 
Byron.

 

[DrRob]

Mould/fungus, not a huge difference and I'm with you on your answers Byron.
 
I also agree that that's brush algae with detritus in it, and with changing the sand for those species.

 

[christylee]

Thanks for the help guys!