Gotta lose my big beautiful piece of driftwood :(

[Shocker6966]

I've been having a month long battle with Nitrites. Testing shows the occasional trace ammonia, nothing serious, but Nitrites are always way out of whack requiring several 50% water changes throughout the week. I've been putting a lot of stress on both myself and my fish trying to figure it out, added an established old Dynaflow3 filter with established media and still no change. Over the last few days, I've noticed some dark spots on the driftwood which when I check them, they're spongey and loose. I've taken some and put them into a separate container after taking a control water sample and in a day or so I'm going to check the water against the control, but I'm quite certain that it's my problem. Such a shame too - it's a beauty piece.

 

[jessicar613]

:sad:

That's beautiful and I'm sure it wasn't cheap either!

 

[Rallysman]

how big and frequent are your water changes and what are your nitrate levels?

 

[Reddog80p]

Was your tank ever cycled? I don't think that driftwood would have anything to do with your nitrIte problem. Driftwood may cause a PH problem or tannin problem but I don't see how it could effect your NitItes.

 

[Blueiz]

Was your tank ever cycled? I don't think that driftwood would have anything to do with your nitrIte problem. Driftwood may cause a PH problem or tannin problem but I don't see how it could effect your NitItes.

Completely agree with this. You are showing trace amounts of ammonia as well, your tank is NOT cylced. Has nothing to do with the driftwood...

Blue

 

[wataugachicken]

the problem may be that the wood is rotting, which can be causing the nitrite spikes if those bacteria can't keep up the pace with the increasing amount of decomposition throughout the wood.

 

[ErrorS]

You're right to suspect the driftwood.. once it starts rotting then you really should take it out. Unlucky, that piece of awesome.. i use a lot of driftwood in my aquariums and will get hte occasional piece that will rot. It's just as bad as having a large, dead fish in the aquarium.. it doesn't take long to ruin the water chemistry.

you can try soaking the driftwood in bleach overnight, then boiling it, then soaking it in a bucket for a week or so.. it might fix any problems the wood is having. Killing any fungus/bacteria that may be eating it away and breaking off the pieces that have stuff living in them.

and a few other suggestions..

have you checked your tap water. or whatever water you're using? it might be that your tap water's nitrites are too high (mine are).. it could also be the filtration your'e using. You said you're using an 'established' filter, maybe it's leeching biological material out into your tank?

my tanks are always packed full of stuff.. I know it's harder with bigger fish but when youy get rid of that wood you're pretty much getting rid of a good majority of the bacteria's surface area.. and that sand doesn't do a whole lot to help. I'd recommend throwing some stones in a corner of the aquarium to help out. NitrAfying bacteria doesn't take long to establish

and something I learned a long time ago with some of my busier community tanks. You can do too many water changes, especially in a tank with little surface area. Id recommend you lessen the water changes and wait for the bacteria to establish itself.. i've never done a water change to bring nitrites in control. Sometimes when ammonia is high with a new tank and of course in an established tank for nitrates, but nitrites should go down within a day or two if you leave it alone.

and for the naysayers, I can almost guarantee the driftwood is causing problems if it is rotting. Rotting driftwood most likely means therei s some fungus growing inside of it, fungus that is eating it away and fungus or bacteria that might even release toxins as it digests the wood.. Evne if it isn't the immediate cause it will cause other problems in the future.. i'd recommend you do the treatments I suggested.. if it's waterlogged and hardened it most likely means the wood has some kind of 'infection' instead of it just not being pure/aged/treated driftwood.

 

[lovemybarbs]

I learned something today!! :bowing:

 

[Shocker6966]

Thats an old picture from before the tank was stocked. The goldfish are just random pondfish that were thrown in mid-cycle to help out/act as mine pigeons. As for the tap water, I have an artesian well that is 0 ammonia, 0 nitrates, 0 nitrites, 7.8ph, haven't tested general hardness - definately not the problem. Where the nitrites are coming from is from the processing of the unusually large amounts of ammonia being produced by the rotting wood. This piece is over 3 feet long. I've seen concentrations in the tank as high as 1.6mg/L of nitrites and some pretty stressed fish. When the levels get this high, it takes at least 2-3 50% water changes to get them back to 0.3mg/L. As I said above, I took some small chunks of spongy wood and put them in a separate container. After about 36 hours 3-5 grams of wood produced enough ammonia in about a quart of water to show up in a test and qualitatively, the smell inside the sealed container was of rotting wood. The piece was power washed, soaked for 2 weeks in a 20% bleach solution and then soaked several times in fresh water before being dried and then re-soaked before being put in the tank. Before putting it in, there were a couple small spots that I was concerned about, but nothing to the extent of whats shown up in the last month or so.

As far as what will be left in the tank as far as surface area for colonies, there is ample bio-filtration, lots of small river rocks, some slate, a bunch of large plastic plants, a piece of mopani that was from an established tank and some american red mangrove seed pods that are finally beginning to germinate. I'm not concerned about the expense of the driftwood as my brother in law runs an exotics distributor(www.piczo.com/eliteexotics) and they pick and prepare their own and I didn't pay much of anything for it. I just hate to lose such a nice piece. Oh well, I guess he can reblanch it and pass it on to someone for a terrarium. In the meantime, I have some work ahead of me, dismantling the canopy and wiring to get this thing out(again, it's over 3 feet long)

PS - that's the brother in law, not me ^^^

 

[webcricket]

Ouch, that was a nice piece! Hopefully you can find something to replace it!