White Growth On Rock?!

[joe17]

I have a 55g that I have recently filled with water and added a lace rock. I was going to add the wood at the same time but the soaking process is taking longer than expected. I plugged in the filter and let it run until I could get the wood in and add the rest of the stuff. There are no lights on the aquarium yet and nothing else has been added. This morning I noticed a white substance growing on the rock, maybe fungus? How should I go about cleaning it? Should I take the rock out of the water completely?

ph: 7.5
ammonia: 0.5 ppm (was 0 when I added the water to the tank )
nitrite: 0
nitrate: 0

 

[BerryAttack]

its natural, you can take it out clean it off and boil it.. then put it back it. should fix it.

 

[joe17]

awesome! I was afraid I had done something wrong!

 

[fm1978]

Sounds fairly harmless. Yeah, give it a scrub as suggested above. It's perhaps more advisable to pour boiling water over it rather than boiling the rock itself. However unlikely the rock could contain air pockets and boiling could cause enough pressure for the rock to fracture...sometimes violently! Just a thought!

 

[joe17]

I thought that's what boiling the rock meant... I will just poor boiling water over it a couple times and see if that works. Hopefully it doesn't come back. Is there a chance that the wood will do the same thing when I add it to the tank?

 

[BerryAttack]

haha oops, meant pour boiling water over it... thinking of driftwood when i wrote that.. but same then.. anyways good luck. lol