Drift Wood

[ConnerFish]

I have a piece of drift wood (real wood) that i put in my tank with my african cichlids (sp?). I dont have a pot big enought to boil it so i soaked it in a large sink for days constantly draining the water and filling it back up with hot. It no longer colored the water so I thought it was safe to put in the tank. It has now started to grow what lookes like white dense fuzzy mold in large patches. Is this normal? Does it need more soaking? I thought maybe it was just adjusting to the tank but im not sure. The fish seem fine so far. Any drift wood advise would be great!

 

[webcricket]

Does the wood have soft spots on it? It could be rotting.

 

[Omega]

I would probably forget about it if that was my African cichlid tank.

 

[wataugachicken]

how long have you had the tank set up? the fungus growing on your wood is normal and should go away in a couple days. if it lasts longer, it may be because your biological filter is compromised in some way. if you don't have bacteria, fungi will move in instead.

 

[Rallysman]

I would probably forget about it if that was my African cichlid tank.

I dont mess with driftwood in african cichlid tanks either. It goes against the way the water should be.

 

[ErrorS]

I spent maybe $500 on driftwood a while back, a ton of small pieces.

Ill tell you, that mold, *most of the time* can be taken care of by soaking it in bleach for a week. A very, very high bleach to water concentration, maybe 1:1.

Afterwords, you soak it again in water with tap water conditioner, it will remove all chlorine and you'll be safe to put it in your aquarium.

Some people also bake their wood in the oven at ~200F for 12+ hours, this works really well and it's how most driftwood you buy from stores are prepared.

but honestly, unless it's a great piece of wood either one will end up costing more than it is worth in the end. The energy used by 12+ hours of constant heating of the oven would buy you 3 pieces that nice.. and how much would it cost for a 1:1 bleach/water solution to soak it in? not to mention the weeks required to fully kill everything off (weeks are just to be safe, could probably be done in a couple of days)

edit: if it's rotting the mold will not go away and the wood will rot as badly as a dead fish would.. but wataugachicken is right, sometimes it does. If it's not a lot of mold it probably wont hurt your fish any.

 

[SmallFishi]

I bought a piece from my LFS that did the same thing within 24 hours it was quite covered in it, I wrote to the company that distributed the driftwood and they told me it was normal fungus that comes out when the wood gets wet, that it is normal and will subside after several soaks in warm water. (I have boiled mine a few times)
The company did say if I continued to have problems after 1 month to let them know but already it is much better and almost gone.
If you found your piece wild then it might be something else so keep an eye on it.

 

[ConnerFish]

Thank you all very much for the help. I will give each one some consideration.

 

[CagIII]

I buy my driftwood at petco. They have it presoaked in a tank with fish already. You can look and see if there is anything wrong with it. If there is anyway to get it already soaked i would go that route.

 

[J double R]

i soaked mine in a salt solution (1 cup to 5 gallons water) with an aquarium heater set at about 100 degrees) and a small water pump to circulate the water for a week, then i boiled it in fresh water for 4 hours each day for 3 days, then soaked it again in cold fresh water for another 2, and i haven't had any leaching OR fungus in my tank.