Slimey driftwood

jackiomy

jackiomy

Lover of Oddballs
Jul 6, 2008
3,423
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San Diego, CA
Real Name
Jacki Wilson
I have had my manzanita driftwood floating in my 10 gallon for a couple of days waiting for it to get waterlogged and sink. I had a incident with a heater breaking (I'll use stealth from now on) day before yesterday. I went to arrange my wood yesterday as it is starting to sink and it was all slimey! Ewwww. I had soaked it before but then let it dry out because I didn't have a tank for it. Now my anachris is slimey too and looks fuzzy. Any suggestions?
 
It happens often with wood, for what reason I do not know, but it does. You can take it out and scrub it but there is really no guarantee it won't come back. I would suggest leaving it alone, even though it is UGLY, and it will go away by itself.
 
that slimy cottony coating is fungus. not harmful, just ugly and gross to look at. once the wood has been in the tank for a while, the beneficial bacteria will colonize it, out-compete the fungus, and it'll go away. so taking it out and scrubbing it off may work for a little bit, but it also may cause the process to take longer. when something is decaying (and wood does decay in the tanks, although very very slowly) fungus usually gets to the scene first, and the bacteria has to catch up to it.
 
wataugachicken said:
that slimy cottony coating is fungus. not harmful, just ugly and gross to look at. once the wood has been in the tank for a while, the beneficial bacteria will colonize it, out-compete the fungus, and it'll go away. so taking it out and scrubbing it off may work for a little bit, but it also may cause the process to take longer. when something is decaying (and wood does decay in the tanks, although very very slowly) fungus usually gets to the scene first, and the bacteria has to catch up to it.
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Cool, but what about my other plants? Just be patient? Same lighting and filtration? I have media from my other tank in the 10 gallon and would like to add a fish for cycling. Is that okay with the fungus?
 
if youre using seeded media, you better add fish soon, or else the cycle is going to stall and youre gonna hafta start from scratch.
 
the plants i don't know. maybe it was being blocked by the wood and wasn't getting enough light and those leaves started to die? the fungus would move to any dying leaves or leftover food in the tank. are you using fertilizer for the plants?
 
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