Weird white fluff on Mopani Wood

[ThinIce]

Hi all

Have had the wood in the tank for a couple of weeks, playing about with the layout / plants etc as its my first tank.

However, this funny fluffy stringy white stuff seems to be growing on the surface of the wood at a fairly rapid rate (ie scrape it off and it only take a day or so to come back).

Before I put any fish anywhere near this tank - what the hell is it? I haven't seen anything like it mentioned here in all my lurking

TIA

 

[Teelie]

Sounds like some sort of fungus to me.

 

[ThinIce]

Right, thats what I figured most likely. It appears to be growing off the wood, its fairly unsightly - any tips for what I should / could do?

 

[emma12321]

Hi ThinIce,

I have had this problem in the past and found the best way is to take it out and scrub it with a toothbrush or something similar every week or so, or whenever it starts to look bad. After a month or so it will dissapear. I had fish in at the time and they didn't seem affected by it in any way. You could also try boiling it if it is a smallish piece or pour boiling water over it.

Hope this helps

Emma

 

[ThinIce]

Thanks Emma, I was just contemplating finding a large pan in the dark recesses of the kitchen cupboards - boiling and brushing it is.

 

[ThinIce]

Ok - boiled it for a fair amount of time about three times. Scrubbed it, and the ruddy stuff is still growing once its back in the water.

Any tips? Reckon petcity would take it back? The tank currently has had no other form of contamination other than the wood, and the fungus still grows in a bucket of cold water (well room temperature not exactly cold atm) so its definately on / in the wood

 

[Cossack1977]

Ok - boiled it for a fair amount of time about three times. Scrubbed it, and the ruddy stuff is still growing once its back in the water.

Any tips? Reckon petcity would take it back? The tank currently has had no other form of contamination other than the wood, and the fungus still grows in a bucket of cold water (well room temperature not exactly cold atm) so its definately on / in the wood

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ive got the same problem at the moment. white stuff growing on some of the wood in my tank. problem is that ive had this wood for close onto a year.

you can pull it out and do a water bleach bath for it. id love to but to hard to remove the wood from my tank

 

[Dubby]

Try a mild solution of bleach 1:20. Soak for a few minutes and then wash thoroughly. Use dechlorinator to remove any traces of bleach.

 

[boozybears]

A few days after I first added my mopini to the tank I had some white cottony stuff growing on it too. I added some melafix and it disappeared over night and never reappeared. No idea what it was or where it went though.

 

[Elisabeth83]

I'm having the same problem. I've used this one piece of wood in my tank for 10-11 months and then decided to take it out because I was trying a different look. I let it dry in the open and then put it away in my fish cupboard. A month went by and I decided to use it in another tank so I took it out washed it off and put it in the tank. Within the week it started getting this weird big patch of white fluffy stuff on it. I figured it must be some kind of fungus so I took it out and washed it and scrubbed it and put it back in...same thing happened. So now I have boiled it but I haven't been brave enough to put it back in the tank because I wasn't sure if whatever was growing it was harmful to my fish?

It must of got some kind of fungus while out of the tank?

 

[OohFeeshy]

It grown on some of mine too, but's not harmfull (its been in 2 tanks, once for over a week when I was on holiday and have had no ill effects). However, maybe adding some kind of broad anti-fungus meds to the water could help?

 

[freddyk]

It isn't harmful in any way and it will go away on it's own. I just pulled them out and brushed it off when it got thick and one day it just stopped growing altogether.

 

[ThinIce]

It isn't harmful in any way and it will go away on it's own. I just pulled them out and brushed it off when it got thick and one day it just stopped growing altogether.

[snapback]875963[/snapback]​

That was my main concern - this being my first tank i'm already absolutely paranoid over killing my first batch of fishies

Cheers for all the replies, i'll clean it off should it grow back again and hopefully it'll take the hint and quit eventually

 

[chishnfips]

why not try using vinegar, in the boiling water, i hear its quite good at cleaning and that

 

[fatguppy]

We had problems with a piece of Mopani wood - it had loads of small crevices in it and it was generating long stringy slimy gooky stuff! We were advised to soak it in Milton baby sterilising solution and then boil it - all of this we did and nothing helped. We have relegated it to the garden in the end.

We don't know if it harmed the fish but it was certainly unsightly!

Hope you are more successfull.