What Is This And How Do I Get Rid Of It?

[damanax]

 
It looks like fluff and it's all over that piece of wood. No matter what I do, it keeps coming back. I've removed that wood about 4 times and dried it in the sun. I reduced lighting times and I've been overdosing Excel . Whenever I attempted to clean it off, it keeps coming back. I also only use root tabs and it is only happening on this piece of wood, regardless of exactly where it is in the tank.
 
A bit more info about the tank.
 
Its a 55g with 20w LED lighting. The lights are on for about 5 hours a day, they were reduced when this stuff came back from 7 hours. I use Flourish Excel and Root Tabs, no other ferts. It gets a 50% water change every week.
 
The plant list is:
Anubias
Various Swords
Hornwort
Vallis
Spiral Crypt
Baby Tears
 
Water Parameters:
Ammonia: 0
Nitrate: 0
Nitrite: 10-20
 
It's been set up since late December.
 
Anybody have any ideas?
 
 

 

[KirkyArcher]

Its a bio fungal growth, totally harmless and usually goes away of its own accord (or is eaten by your fish) to speed up its removal, take it out and scald it with boiling water and scrub like mad, this will either do it after one go or may take a few attempts to eliminate completely, with it being a fungus drying in the sun will only put it in a dormant state and O/D with excel will have no effect at all as it's not an algal growth .

 

[damanax]

Ah, that explains why I couldn't find anything about it when I looked.
 
I tried the scalding/scrubbing thing multiple times which is why I got so frustrated with it 

 
What does it feed off of? The nutrients in the wood? 

 

[KirkyArcher]

Basically yes, it's just like mushrooms enjoying damp decaying wood, could try a long soak in a saturated salt solution or even peroxide!

 

[damanax]

Ah ok. It's completely harmless to the plants as well? I am a little concerned that the Anubias does seems to be covered with it, especially around the rhizome.
 
I may have to try that when I've got a few days free. Thanks! I was worried that I had some horrible unkillable abomination in my tank!

 

[BerryAttack]

its normal, just leave it and it'll go away.. in the water you can remove/scrub it and your fish will eat it.
i wouldn't soak it with any salt or chemicals are it can leach back into your aquarium and kill your fish.. just give it time.. everyone gets it when they have wood in the tank in the beginning.