# New tank, new driftwood... and slime?



## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

I set up my new tank over the past few days. Soil topped with play sand. 29G tall, rather than long (it was 50$ cheaper). Anyways, back to the point. This is my first time using driftwood. I soaked it in hot water for a few hours (I was unsure about boiling it). When I did this it oozed something. IT was suggested it might be sap.

Well, I put it in the tank Saturday night, about noon today when I got a good look at my tank, I saw it looked... fuzzy. The drift wood has a slimy substance covering it. For the most part it won't wipe off, and it is VERY slimy to the touch. It looks kinda whitish, but mostly opaque.

I have no idea if this is normal, or some sort of bacteria. The inhabitants of the tank so far are about 20 baby trumpets and several plants. This is my attempt at a NPT. I Realize I need more plants, but due to money, I will be adding a few a week until I get it sufficiently stocked.

I tested the water last night, 0 ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, ph of about 7.5. Will be retesting tomorrow, was warned about possible ammonia spikes from the soil, but so far that doesn't seem to be an issue. I'm leary about adding any fish until I figure out what this slime is. I'd hate to add some fish only to have whatever this is attack them.

Ok, enough rambling, here are a few pictures, including the tank as it looks, and a close up of the slime.
Plants are mostly cabomba, 2 swords, a few crypts, and some tall stemmed plants I'm not quite sure of.


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## Varkolak (Jun 9, 2012)

Very normal and bristle nose plecos eat it, one of those facts of life about aquarium driftwood - they get fuzzy for awhile but eventually it will go away. I don't like mine so considering a second pleco just to wipe it out

not sure about the oozing when you soaked it, that's not a good sign but from what i see its normal fuzz


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## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

I was planning on a BN anyways, just thought it was better to wait for the tank to mature before I got one. I haven't seen a trumpet near it, however they could hide in the slime. 
I have a trio of apples, I could add one and see if they will bite.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Tikibirds (May 26, 2011)

I think thats the same stuff I would find covering my decor when I lived in alaska. I didnt really have live plants though..had one or two swords and everthing else was silk. Other then being slimy it did no damage to the bettas


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## eug (May 18, 2012)

I have some new bogwood that does the same thing, oozing this translucent goo which is unsightly and also seems to smell quite bad. It's either a fungus or a bacterial bloom based on what I've read but does no harm to fish and apparently goes away at some point. I've been periodically taking the wood out and scrubbing it with a toothbrush...


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## Varkolak (Jun 9, 2012)

My honey gourami actually take big bites out of it when they are grazing my tank but i haven't seen any snails take any interest in it yet, best bet if you want to knock it out is put your BN in once you feel its cycled well enough, planted tanks don't really have many issues with nitrogen booms because the plants soak up most of the ammonia before they get to harmful levels


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## Olympia (Aug 25, 2011)

Depending on what it is, a lot of people think it filters water much like a plant would. It will go away soon, no danger here..
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

The tank itself won't actually do a normal cycle, to many live plants. So I'm wondering if it's safe to add the pleco now, and the girl in a few days. I plan to have this as a betta sorority.


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## Varkolak (Jun 9, 2012)

I don't see why not, plecos are pretty tough and with all that fuzz it wont starve


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## eug (May 18, 2012)

I would just keep an eye on it as I'm doing with my piece of wood. Byron's posted reports in the past about how the fungus clouded the water, probably due to huge amounts of spores, causing stress to his fish nearly killing them, and he also mentioned talking to a fellow aquarist who had the same thing happen, except in his case he lost all of his corydoras. My tank is fishless at the moment so I'm just going to watch and see if the fungus remains, starts growing like mad, or if it seems to get out-competed by bacteria/algae etc and dies out.

edit: oh and I'll add that I only just rinsed the wood in boiling water before putting it the tank. I've read conflicting information about whether boiling/baking the wood helps at all. Some believe it kills the bacteria/algae that would otherwise provide competition for the algae helping the fungus thrive, making it a totally unproductive exercise. I figure the boiling/baking also kills the fungus that's presently on the wood itself, great - but there are probably plenty of fungus spores floating around your tank that will happily re-attach itself to the freshly sterilized wood. I'm no biologist so take all this with a grain of salt, just making some educated guesses... So anyway my point was, I'm basically leaving the fungus as it is unless the situation goes out of control and it starts spreading to other parts of the tank, and hope that other organisms will outcompete and starve the fungus eventually. If that doesn't happen, I guess I'll have to get rid of the wood.


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## eug (May 18, 2012)

I'll attach a pic of the slime/fuzz that's on my wood:


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## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

That's the same stuff alrighty. It's just VERY abundant.

Checked at the LFS, no bristlenoses available, but should be getting in some later this week.

At least they had some cherries (my other tank) and some new plants.


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## Adamson (Feb 5, 2012)




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## Olympia (Aug 25, 2011)

Why was that person dosing ammonia with live fish in there? -some people-
Of course fungi loves to feed off rot, ammonia is rot, had a huge problem with this. Threw in some Pimafix and problem was solved without affecting the cycle. Never once had mould from my Malaysian driftwood, and I'm very liberal with how I treat my tank and stuff that goes in it.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Ogre44 (Nov 5, 2011)

I had a piece of grapewood in my tank that did this.
I took it out and boiled it for about 8 hours all told in my turkey fryer and put it back in the tank.
It did it again, and the water got VERY cloudy.
I managed to save my betta, but my bristlenose pleco did not survive.
By their symptoms it seems that they got Nitrite poisoning, possibly from decomposition of the very soft wood.
But that is an amateur diagnosis, it quite possibly was caused by the fungus emitting some toxin into the water.
I wouldn't leave anything that grew that gelatine looking goo in my tank.
Just my 2 cents.


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## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

The big question is... is this ugly but normal, or toxic?


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## Olympia (Aug 25, 2011)

Generally dark wood is best.
Grape wood is one of the worst for moulds- it's really meant for reptile terrariums, not fish tanks.
_Posted via Mobile Device_


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## Varkolak (Jun 9, 2012)

Its ugly but normal, its toxic when you try to boil it and break down the fuzz, I ended up just saying screw it and got a second BN to deal with mine


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## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

So I took it out last night, washed it down with scalding water, got out paper towels and an old toothbrush I had designated for scrubbing fish decor, and attacked it. IT felt like mucus, it was really gross.

I cleaned it off as best as I could before I put it back in the tank (for the record the wood is as bouyant as ever). I checked earlier this evening and I felt small patches of slime. I'm figuring by the time I get home tomorrow I'll know if it will turn into a full out slime bloom again or not.

I'll go do a round of water tests and report the results shortly. Temp is about 78-79


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## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

sorry about the double post, passed the 20 minute edit window...

ok, ammonia, nitrite/trate all 0, ph between 7.0 and 7.5, really should have run this earlier in the day for natural light.

Checked GH and KH as well, for Gh, it was 3 drops, which if I read correctly is 60mg/L and for Kh it was 4 drops, which I really am not sure how to translate, silly me, chem was ages ago. Either way soft soft soft it the word.


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## eug (May 18, 2012)

Hi, there are hardness unit converters available: UTILITIES

I just wanted to add that my malaysian trumpet snails seem to occasionally stick their noses in the stuff - not sure if they're actually eating much of it or if it's harming them in any way.


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## eug (May 18, 2012)

Some further reading tells me the fungus is likely a Saprolegnia and is a decomposer in the aquarium, in partnership with bacteria. The author here is also of the opinion that the bacterial colonies, once established, outcompete the fungus and eventually hold it at bay:
Fungi and water molds (and slime molds too) | The Skeptical Aquarist


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## Varkolak (Jun 9, 2012)

lol i had a half inch thick fuzz on a part of my drift wood and today its GONE not a single speck in the entire tank so either that new pleco is extremely thorough or like the poster above said once the bacteria balanced out it disappears, either way I'm happy because now my tank looks beautiful


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## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

Comments on fungus. There are many, perhaps hundreds if not thousands, of species of fungus on the planet, and many occur in an aquatic environment. Some are relatively harmless to other life, but many are highly toxic. Without knowing the exact species of fungus, which would take microscopic analysis by a microbiologist, it is impossible to determine toxicity.

Fungus that oozes out of wood may be highly toxic. Grapewood (someone mentioned this earlier) has frequently killed off entire tanks of fish. This wood should be avoided. Mopani wood and Manzanita wood, the blond-coloured or two-toned types, have also been known to contain highly toxic fungi.

I personally would not leave any wood in the tank once it showed white fungus. I lost fish to this myself, and have known of other aquarists having the same problem. If you value your fish, do not risk it.

Last comment on that article; it is very informative respecting fungus, but gives no indication of toxicity. Which isn't surprising, since it requires identification of the specific fungus species to determine this.

Byron.


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## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

I have no idea what kind of wood this is. And the slime isn't white, it's... well it's like snot. It's kinda milky. I guess I'll take it out until I can find something that doesn't act so controversial


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