prairielilly

I bought two pieces of wood recently to go in my new 10g, one piece of standard mopani wood that came shrinkwrapped in plastic and one gnarly pale-blond stick, meant for reptile cages. They were both soaked in hot water a few times to waterlog them and get rid of most of the tannins and have now been in the tank for just over a week.

The mopani wood is fine, bled tannins like crazy but now seems ok. The stick I noticed last night was covered in a white slime (JUST that stick) that trails off into the water. It was soft and squishy under my fingers and came off easily. I took both wood pieces out and soaked in bleach water for a few hours, then soaked in dechlorinated water for an hour, repeated the dechlorination process a few times. I put both pieces back in last night. I also changed out 95% of the tank's water.

This morning the white slime is back. It's not hairy or fibrous so I don't think it's an algae (tank's not old enough anyway). It's not on the gravel or the other piece of wood. I think it's some sort of fungus that was already on the wood, but don't know how to get rid of it - it's too long to fit in a pot to boil and bleaching obviously didn't work, should I bake it? I took just that piece out of the tank.

Tank is empty and cycling, contains gravel and the wood and that's it, AquaClear 30 filter (with carbon for now) and heater at 78. Currently at 8 PPM ammonia (fishless cycling).

IIIHawKIII

when i was havin all my driftwood troubles i read several places that the white stuff is normal. it's the beneficial bacteria eating nutrients left in the wood, or something to that effect.

basically, it's harmless, and will continue to return. kinda like diatoms. you just have to let it starve itself. from what i gathered.

prairielilly

doesn't that refer to the white fibrous algae stuff that grows on the wood though? I've had that before, never had this - slimy, gross, covers the whole thing. I'm pretty sure it's a fungus. If it'll go away after it starves I'll leave it in the tank as it cycles, but I want to put plants in there soon and I don't want this in there at the same time if it's going to harm them, and no way is there going to be slime in my tank with my fish.

Hwx

I would take it out and leave it in a bucket of water until the slime runs its course, then take a test of the bucket water.But I don't know what you paid for it.

prairielilly

I moved it to another tank (also fishless and cycling) - helped that I rearranged some stuff in its initial home and it no longer fit. I've also covered it in java moss. Like you said it's likely just bacteria eating up any organics left in the wood, which they will eventually 'use up'...I hope.

Lucy

Hi Marsha, I'm not positive, but I think wood meant for reptile cages is treated (not sure with what or why) so I've steered clear of it.
I wonder if this 'slime' is from whatever treatment it's given.

prairielilly

..uh oh? I hope not! I guess I'll find out if the cycle doesn't take off or the java moss attached to it dies...

The mopani wood also said on the shrinkwrap 'for reptiles or aquariums...'

IIIHawKIII

i've had terrible luck with the zoomed mopani. search for a thread called "driftwood zits"

Lucy

Ah, ok, didn't know it said it was safe for aquariums. I've had a peice of mopani soaking for a few weeks now, it's got a slimy feel to it.
The other driftwood I have was in a tank at a LFS and I never noticed a slimy feel to it. I don't know what kind it is.

prairielilly

...and making bubbles? I'm not the patient type, not good with 'waiting it out' - is it still fine? does this look like what you've seen?

Lucy: the writing was on the mopani wood's wrapper, this is a different piece, I was just hoping the same applied...I'd asked the lfs guy when I bought my plants yesterday and he said he sees that all the time, agreed w. IIIHawkIII - I've seen white thready stuff, but slime like this, nope.

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Lucy

I was looking for a thread that had some pics similar, can't find it but I'll keep looking.
In the mean time, take a look at this thread:
Mucus on driftwood

prairielilly

that sounds about right...

It's too long to fit in a pot to boil, and bleaching didn't take away all the fungus (or whatever it is). I don't really see why it's suggested to dry it though - yes, that will clear it up, but it will then come back as soon as it goes back in the tank - I want it wet...

There's no fish to be harmed and if the java moss dies well it does, so I guess I'll learn to wait

coffeebean

i have had that slime in three of my tanks with wood intended for aquarium use. the plecos and snails love it when it got thick i took it out and washed it off with a dish scrubber. it came back a couple times and then i havent seen it since. i think its harmless.

prairielilly

hmm, so if I didn't get all the snails out of the moss, there's lotsa food for them...

Good to know all, thanks

IIIHawKIII

those pics look similar to the stuff i was talkin about. the bubbles are just from the bacteria/fungus "eating" and producing waste.

i'd just let it ride. i have some plant bulbs in my tank with the same stuff on it. and it's making bubbles too.

prairielilly

I took the pics just a few hours ago and already the amount of slime has doubled...there's only so much in there to 'feed' it so hoping it will run its course soon, cause wow is it gross!

prairielilly

I'm guessing that 'how long this will last' is dependent on how much 'food' is available for the fungus, but I really wish that would happen faster - it's been completely covered in about 2-3" of bubbly white goo for the past four days. I think tonight I'm going to scrub it off (if I can get it out of the tank without touching it --yeeechhh).

meg1220

That is the stuff I had on my driftwood, too. It is absolutely foul. I couldn't wait it out because it got so thick and disgusting looking. I removed the piece a couple of times while cleaning the tank and scrubbed the stuff off in a bucket of tank water. This seemed to work better than boiling it again- when I tried that, the stuff came back much faster, and with a vengeance. After a couple of scrubs in tank water, it didn't come back, but I have noticed that that piece of driftwood still smells bad when I've taken it out. Have you noticed that foul smell, too?? I think it is a (harmless) bacteria.

prairielilly

Haven't particularly smelled that one piece, but I've got three tanks all cycling w. ammonia all very close together so it mainly smells like...ammonia. I'll check though.

I'm sure it's harmless, it's just....gross.

IIIHawKIII

how's this going?

i'm thinkin the reason it comes back after boiling is because you are bringing more of the "edible" material from inside the wood to the surface of the wood. whereas scrubbing, you are just removing the colony of the white stuff, and it will just grow back, but with a little less food.

i assume since you are cycling you have your water temp up half way decently warm, around 80 or so? cause as with most things, i think heat will make it eat and grow faster, there by eating it's food source faster.

prairielilly

I never got to do anything to this piece the other day, and this morning it looked like this:
smelly wood.JPG

It seemed the fungus was dying off a bit, but I still wanted to clean it up as the tank it was in recently completed its cycle and I don't want fish in there with the fungus, safe or no. I was fiddling with the filters and rearranging stuff in all three cycling tanks today, and took the wood out for another bleach dip. I'd considered all the options - can't boil it (don't have a pot that big), could scrub in tank water, or bleach it. I thought killing the current fungus might help the most.

When I took it out of the tank I found out about the smell - mercaptan! yummy! I do NOT want sulphur compounds in my tank. I bleached it for half an hour and then dechlorinated it. Unfortunately the bleaching process killed the java moss I had tied to it - it turned white. So the fact that the moss was dead together with knowing the fungus will likely still come back again, the fact that I don't want sulphur compounds in my tank, and the fact that with rearranging all the other stuff meant I suddenly didn't know where to put it - all made me decide that this particular piece of wood will look just lovely OUTSIDE, in my flower bed.

IIIHawKIII

agreed. sorry it didn't work out for you. but that's what i had to do with some driftwood i tried out. just wasn't meant to be.

i got some malaysian hardwood that turned out to be GREAT stuff. really really dense. no slime.

prairielilly

...I'm a little too good with changing my mind This piece is currently in my 20g and has been for about 18 hrs...so far fungus-free. First sign of white slime and out it comes though!

TedsTank

I'm sure its a bacterial bloom, it will clear out....I had a piece once that grew what looked like a slime mold....it fed on the soft organics and then died out. In a well establishe tank it would clear faster.....the wood needs to cycle.

Butterfly

Wood for reptiles that have been treated has to say so on the tag. I've used several pieces meant for reptiles and it does fine. The piece I have at work did something similar to that and it finally just went away. If it bothers you siphon it off
Carol

prairielilly

Thought I'd update, for anyone else who searches for threads on white slime stuff on wood: since being added to the 20g (established tank) the fungus came back, but much much less, only a few little thready bits that came off easily when I stuck it under the tap. Had to do that two or three times, but it's been fungus-free for some time now in the 20g (may or may not have anything to do with the nine cories in there who are constantly chewing on it)