homemade drift wood problems HELP

[redruckus]

ok i recently found a few masses of root wood and a nice stump from a lot that a construction company is clearing.. out of the 4 pieces i have i soaked and peeled the bark off them and they are drying nicely and look very good but i am getting a greenish white mold on the large of the 4 pieces i did have to soak this on longer to get the thicker bark off of it but it has been drying for a good week an a half now but over the last 3 days i have noticed a fair bit of whitish green mold on the outside of the wood where i peeled the bark off of..... how would i get rid of this.... note this piece is about 3.5-4' long.... also is it just a matter of time befor it just goes away and will it be safe to put in a tank eventualy?

 

[MrBeta]

So the wood is molding outside the tank?

 

[redruckus]

yes i peeled all the bark off and put it in the sun to let it dry 100% befor i re-soaked it to leech of tannins... and yes the piece of wood has mold on it sitting on my concrete deck in 100% sun all day to dry it out... i can take pictures but i dont know how good they will be

 

[MrBeta]

Well I'd be careful about introducing mold to your tank. I'd be curious to know what is causing it. Have you tried a saltwater soak? That might kill the mold.

 

[redruckus]

i cant realy 100% soak the piece so one half of it will be out of the biggest container i have also i do not want to use salt if i dont have to because im probably going to be useing it in a discus tank and i dont want the posible salt resedue to get into the tank for the health of the fish

 

[redruckus]

http://i.imgur.com/5cyuS.jpg imgur: the simple image sharer http://i.imgur.com/GNzJS.jpg

first link is the whole piece the white stuff on it is the mold there is a fair bit of it in that cevice... second link close up on the mold, 3rd link the other drift wood i have that is uneffected i think its because of the size and they dryed much quicker

 

[BillD]

Spray it with bleach and let it dry, rinse and scrub off any residue. Power washers do a pretty good job of cleaning wood.

 

[redruckus]

i guess im gona bust out my spray bottle and preasure washer if i can get it to work then keep it inside next to my de humidifire

 

[redruckus]

even tho im proli just gona preasure washer cuz bleach in my tank is an even worse idea then salt cuz i know about cholrine killing fish

 

[MrBeta]

Well you spray with bleach and let it dry, and then you resoak it to remove bleach.
I was going to suggest that previously, but didn't feel like explaining the process of getting the bleach out if the wood.

 

[redruckus]

ya the wood is almost too big to soak and i cant get a hold of a 40gal plastic drum the wood is about 6" across and 4' long so its huge i have it my closet with my dehumidifire set at 20% humidity.... i preasure washed the mold off befor i put it in the room so hopefully it doesnt come back befor i get my tank and start soaking it and running a bunch of carbon filtration and lots of water changes

 

[BillD]

When the bleach dries it is no longer bleach.

 

[redruckus]

ill see how this works out that closet its almost fully sealed so the air in there is at 45% humidity when i checked just now so by morning it should be even lower and that will hopefully suck moisture out of the wood...ill post again in a few days for an update my last resort is going to be using bleach if this doesnt work

 

[Deckape]

ya the wood is almost too big to soak and i cant get a hold of a 40gal plastic drum the wood is about 6" across and 4' long so its huge i have it my closet with my dehumidifire set at 20% humidity.... i preasure washed the mold off befor i put it in the room so hopefully it doesnt come back befor i get my tank and start soaking it and running a bunch of carbon filtration and lots of water changes

How big is your tank? Is it at Seaworld? What are you gonna do with driftwiod that big? Just wondering. Oops thought it said 6' not 6". My fault..

 

[redruckus]

Im getting a 135 gal 6' x 2' x 18" no idea on the brand and i am going to aquascape it with rocks and this wood... probably going to be a discus tank or an amazon tank (angels, kribs, tetras, barbs, smaller cats...ect.)