White mold?

[C.Anderson]

Hey guys,

I did a partial water change last night to clear out a little bit of the 'tea' color in the water since I've added my mopani center piece (plus I was due!). When I got up this morning the water looked more 'golden' (with a light tint of green...) than 'brown' but I noticed a small layer (about 1/8") of soft, white mold looking growth over portions of the wood. Is this normal for this stuff? Can I take a new, santitzed plastic bristled scrub brush lightly to it in order to remove it? My guppies seem to be eating it! It's only on certain areas of the wood though...not a consistent coating on the whole thing.

My other question is about the water color itself. There is no real algae to speak of in my tank...but I know not all algae is visible, and some just floats in the water. This has me slightly worried since I am not experienced with the mopani wood at all, and am unfamiliar with what to expect as far as coloration of the water (worse...I've got two other pieces coming since I love the color so much!). I'm hoping my new fluvals get here soon...I'm very happy with the fish I have now and wish I'd known about this site for research before I added them to an insufficiently filtered tank!

Thanks in advance guys!

Cris :)

[wataugachicken]

wood will color the water, but it will still be clear. algae or bacterial blooms, even in a 'tea-stained' tank, will be cloudy.

[THE V]

For the First question: It is very normal to have a fungus bloom on new wood added to the tank. My goldfish ate all the stuff and thought it was great though. It is not harmful and will go away in a few weeks as the organisms on the woods surface reach a balance. Some people take the wood out a boil it but this can just make the problem come back in a few days/weeks. It is best just to leave it alone.

[jm1212]

i would scrub the mold off instead of allowing it to spread.

[OhioOilMan]

you would be surprised what can survive on a piece of driftwood that has been sanitized! I had found a few nice pieces of drift wood on the River bank, ( I live beside the Ohio River) so I took them in soaked them in bleach, then in salt water, then sat them in the sun for a few days to dry out, once I placed them in my tank I had started to notice that my jellybean's started going crazy over something that was crawling out of the wood, at first I thought nah it's just something new to the surroundings and they are just being curious, but then after looking closer I had noticed hundreds of these little tiny what looked to be black beetles of some sort crawling out. they didn't last long as they became a quick afternoon snack for my Jellybean / pink convo's

[Rbishop]

I have found and heard the white mold on Mopani to be very common and goes away by its self. The only times I never saw it on Mopani new to a tank, the pieces were boiled for several hours (6-8) after it had been soaked for weeks.

[C.Anderson]

Thanks for the replies guys! Somehow I missed them (I think my notification settings were off). I ended up taking the wood out so I could leach it before putting it in the new tank anyhow. I couldn't exactly boil it (too big) but I did pour boiling water over it repeatedly...along with letting it sit in it. After about a week of that, and some very dedicated scrubbing...I put it back into the new tank.

Two days later...white mold lol.

I do have to say there's nowhere near as much...and now that I know it's safe for the fish to eat I'll just leave it be. Speaking of 'fish eating'...in the old tank I'd added a 2" or so Royal Pleco. He was in there a week or two, along with this rather LARGE piece of Mopani, and another piece of what the LFS called 'Voodoo Wood'. He never touched it. Matter of fact I couldn't remove him from the suction tube on my brand new Fluval FX5. That was in the 130gal tank. Now here's the funny part...he's in the 300gal, and I can't get him off the driftwood lol. 3x the volume, 4' wider tank, and now he finds the driftwood lol. Ahh well, least he found it =).

Cris