Hey big, yes dont worry about this. Its a bacterial bloom. I bought some mopani wood from dfs, and 2 weeks later, I had this nasty white slimy stuff all overy my drift wood. After some research I learned the driftwood was cycling, and growing bacteria. It dissapered in a week. So no dont worry about the fish. It will be fine. Enjoy and happy fish keeping.
I agree with Brokenwing. I had the same issues in the past. It looked like white hair algae growing on my cypress stumps. I removed the algae just by rubbing the wood. It came back but eventually went away once it ran its course.
Almost all driftwood goes thru the bacterial bloom phase! Don't worry at all, it will clear up. If you try to remove too much of it, it will take longer to clear. The bacteria is cleaning up any microscopic organics that are on and in the surface of the wood.
My experience with mopani wood is if you get the wood that is all brown with none of the blonde color it slimes up much less.I think its because the all brown wood is much more dense than the lighter stuff.My ottos luv to eat that slime,its like candy to them and they are still alive and kicking.One thing I would do is put a sponge from a small AC refill on your intake to catch the slime before it gets sucked up in your filter,it gets in there and clogs everything up.