Cotton-like algae on driftwood

[FishOCD]

On the shore of a great lake, I found a hollow piece of driftwood with interesting "portholes". After scrubbing it and soaking it overnight, but not bleaching or boiling, I put it in a new tank. (Patience is not one of my virtues.) A week later it is growing whitish cotton-like algae or mold. Whaddaya think? Should I be concerned? I have new tank "canaries" of a half dozen zebra danios. They don't seem to mind the algae -- and even nibble at it every now and then.

 

[Guest]

Is the "algae" white? If so it's a fungus and is normal.

 

[FishOCD]

Thanks! Yes, it looks like white cotton candy. Will it continue to grow or eventually go away? (I can't say I find it appealing.)

 

[Madame_X]

Ah, welcome to my fungus... I've been dealing with this since the first week I set up my planted tank.

Everything I've read about this says it will go away on its own when the bacterial colonies develop. So far, I'm 5 weeks into it and mine has shown no signs of going away. It has spread to other plants, especially the hornwort which I physically have to remove from the tank every 3-4 days and swish around in a bucket of water to get it off. I vacuum the driftwood and plants as well as I can and remove as much of it as possible manually, and within 2 days its back as strong as ever.

Now, I have a very light fish load in my tank (three fish up until last week when I moved a dwarf gourami into the tank so now four) and this may be part of my problem. I've never had any measurable ammonia in this tank (the plants must be consuming it all) so I'm sure I have little or no bacteria established as yet, but I didn't want to push the bio-load because I'm going out of town next week. So MAYBE this will go away when I get back and am able to start adding a few more fish to the tank.

I hope so, because its ugly. And its driving me crazy! :x

 

[FishOCD]

I sent you a reply a few days ago, Madame X, but it disappeared in cyberspace. However in the meantime... my fungus is disappearing, too! It's not entirely gone but it's down to the barely-fuzzy stage. Hang in there, all will be well soon.

 

[Madame_X]

Thanks for the words of encouragement! Mine seems to be slowing down a little but its still a problem. I wish I knew what to do about it. I just continue to manually remove some with a turkey baster, remove and rinse my hornwort a couple of times a week and gravel vacuum the problem areas once a week.

The water looks crystal clear, aside from the fungus accumulation on the plants. I should probably just throw away the stupid driftwood that's causing it but its huge and it was expensive so I really want to keep it. :x I just keep hoping it will stop eventually (everything that I read says it will).

I added four little marble hatchets to boost the bio-load a bit so maybe some bacterial growth will take care of the problem. :|

 

[ScottS]

Welcome a new member to the club! I'm cycling my tank right now and noticed my driftwood, both pieces, has the same white growth. My driftwood was bought from a lfs as "African Driftwood." It hasn't spread to my artificial decor yet. I took it out and boiled the driftwood today, who knows if it will be effective, or if I boiled the pieces long enough.

 

[Madame_X]

Well, mine never did go away. I ended up getting rid of the driftwood and replacing it with a smaller piece. I think the problem with mine was that it was very large and thick, and I don't think it was completely dried in the middle.

I boiled mine repeatedly, even including some salt in the pot while boiling. It killed it off for a while, but within two weeks it was back. I fought with mine for about three months before giving up on that piece of driftwood. I was determined to make it work because it was an expensive piece! But it was growing faster than I could clean it out and it just wasn't worth it.

I think my case was unusual because of the size of the driftwood I was trying to use. Hopefully you'll have better luck!

 

[FishOCD]

Not to worry -- it will eventually go away, ScottS. Now mine has developed spots of green and brown algae but it makes the wood look interesting and more natural.