Wood is growning brown algae?

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DeVitaf

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Apr 15, 2002
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N. Providence, RI
Ok before I explain the situation I have to explain the history of this tank. It is a 27g hexagon. I wanted the aquascaping to resemble a root system, I thought it would look good in the tall tank.

A little over a year ago I was camping and found some nice 'branchy' peices of wood I wanted to use for my tank and decided to make my own decor using them.

I posted here for instructions on cleaning the wood and followed all instruction that I received. I cleaned the wood thouroughly then soaked it in a bleach/water mixture for a month (changing the mixture 2-3 times a week) I then soaked it in water (to get rid of the bleach) for 2 weeks, changing the water every day.


Ok, now I get to the question :).

The tank was setup in my father's house for almost a year and after a few months the wood became covered in what I thought to be brown algea. But ist is not like any brown algea I have ever seen. It grows out of certain spots of the wood like cotton. It sticks out about an inch and is easily wiped away by hand.

I wrote this off to an excessive amount of light since my parents had it setup in front of a window.

Well now I have my own house and I took the tank back. After being broken down for a month I set the tank up again.
Within 5 days the wood has begun growing the "Poofs" of brown translucent stuff. Could anybody tell me what this is? It doesn't seem to bother the fish and I believe it actually helps my tank because my nitrates are always extremely low (figure it may be fedding of the waste in the water like a plant)

Of course I took some great pictures of the stuff but can't find the cable to my digital cable :rolleyes:.

TIA
 
Last edited:

lesley

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Dec 18, 2002
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I'm not sure if what you have is the same as what I have on my piece of wood. Mine almost looks like a whitish slime. I read somewhere that when you soak/bleach/boil wood, it kills of anything that might be colonizing the wood, i.e. bacteria, fungus, whatever. Now you go and put this perfectly sterile piece of wood in your tank, which isn't sterile by any means. Whatever kinds of algae or fungus or bacteria that are in your tank will begin to colonize this new growth substrate. According to what I read (and I can't remember where I read it) it will just take a while for "good" bacteria to colonize and outcompete whatever is growing on there. Re-sterilizing the wood will only start this process over again.

I don't know if this will apply to the situation in your tank, if you have a definite algae or something. I hope it goes away, it is definitely a cool piece of wood.
 

Murdock

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Jun 10, 2004
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I Have/Had The Same Thing

I Have A Piece Of Driftwood That Is Like A Hollow Shell The Fish Love It I Originally Put It In One Of My Tanks About 20 Years Ago Ok That Hurt To Say, I'm Really Not That Old.

When I First Put It In The Tank It Did The Same Thing As Yours Is Doing After 6-8-10 Months, Ok Maybe It Was Really That Long Ago, It Cleaned Up And For The Most Part Was Ok It Would Have A Occasional Brown Slime Growth On It But It Would Usually Die Off After A While.

One Thing Let To Another & I Took That Tank Down As I Didn't Have A Place To Set It Up After I Moved. So The Driftwood Sat In A Box Up In The Rafters Of The Garage For Close To 15 Years. I Had Forgotten About It Even After I Set Back Up My 125 Gal Tank. About 2 Months Ago I Came Across It When Setting Up A 40 Gal Tank So I Cleaned It And Put It In The 40 Soon After The Growths Are Back.

I Have No Idea What It Is Fully But It Hasn't Caused Me Any Problems That I Know Of....
 

daveedka

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Jan 30, 2004
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I had what appears to be the same thing grow on my wood when I first set up the tank, several threads here said it was normal and would go away. I did clean off what I could, and it did go away after 4 or 5 weeks. My understanding is that it won't hurt your fish, and the pics look exactly like what I had, but of course the pics are a little fuzzy. and Agreed that's a great set-up.
 
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