White Puffy Stuff On Mopani Wood

[eaglesaquarium]

Well, that's the problem. I noticed a whitish puffy substance on my mopani wood in my tank today. I have two pieces of mopani, but only one has the stuff on it. What can I do to eliminate it. It comes off easily, so obviously I could just remove it manually and hope it does return, but I'd rather find out what it is and what I can do to make sure it doesn't come back. Sorry for the quality of the pic, I'm not a very good photographer!

Those are air bubbles trapped inside the stuff...

Should I dip it into some sort of a chlorine solution? What potential hazards am I looking at with this?



There are no fish in the tank currently, but the rescues mentioned in the sig are coming tomorrow!!! Besides removing the wood from my tank, what else can I do?!

 

[ian]

it's quite normal for Mopani to do this. Apparently it's because it's not dried properly. Shrimp and snails love the stuff! I have had it in my old tanks and never had a problem.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

So, what should I do? Nothing, or just remove it. I don't have any shrimp or snails (as you know from another thread! ) in my tank to eat it.


I guess it's all good then... I should just remove it as I see it and all is well?

 

[ian]

it does eventually go, you can take it out and scrub it, but it's come back until it's completely leached.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Thanks... Maybe I'll take the wood out and soak it some more then. Does hot water work better than cold? Would boiling speed up the process?

It's only one of the pieces, so that at least is good news...

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Btw, thanks Ian for setting my mind at ease!

 

[lyolya]

oh my god, mopani wood has given me a ton of headacke. i had 3 large pieces, two were getting the fungus, and one just never did. i took them out and boiled them for days - several times, but it always came back. Moreover, the fungus spread on the glass of the tank too. so finally after reading up on so many people having constsnt problems with it i just decided it wasn't worth the pain and took them out. the one single piece still hasn't got any fungus. SO, to be honest i don't want to discourage you, but i would just take the bad piece out and forget about it.

or maybe dry it in the sun for a couple of summers and maybe then give it a go again.

sorry i'm not as optimistic!

maybe u'll have more luck with it than i did!

 

[CrazyAirborne]

i had the same thing happen on my mopani, it was less white, but completely covered the light wood portions, and didnt touch the dark wood areas on the same piece. It even grew quite thick in a couple areas. i might have lightly scrubbed it off. I had taken the piece out when i was doing some rescaping, and never put it back in. it sat in the garage for a couple weeks untill it went into a different tank. now the algae or whatever it is hasnt nearly come back as strong, but when it does crop up, (seems something is always growing on those areas) my otto and snails have a feast and keep the wood pretty clean. didnt seem to bother anyone othern me.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

It might bother my wife, but as long as it isn't dangerous to the fish... that's the real issue. I might actually have to get some snails.

 

[colleen0309]

It looks like the biofilm that grows on the suction cups of my heater. I had it growing on my driftwood but the snails and shrimp took care of it.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

So, the stuff is harmless, beneficial or what?

 

[Caprichoso]

It's harmless. I does seem scary though! I had some grow on my new piece of manzanita wood after I had boiled it for 1 hour. I took it out of the tank and boiled it again. The mould came back again so I just left it (after reading it was harmless). My amano shrimp started eating it. Some of it came back but after 3 weeks it was gone, never to return again. None of my shrimp died so all was good. It's just part of the leeching process that mould, (or whatever it is) can develop in some pieces of wood.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Ok... thanks. That's what I wanted to hear.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Does anyone know if corydoras eat this stuff? I had a bunch of it building up last night, but this morning it is DRASTICALLY less than it was.

 

[Caprichoso]

Not sure if they eat it, they didn't seem interested when I had it. The fungus may have just run it's course and is now dying off. Either that or your cories have discovered a taste for truffles lol.