Help—Mopani wood has semi-transparent, soft jelly bumps

[plecofish]

Soaked Mopani wood in tub for 2 months. Still releases tannins like crazy, so I decided to accept it. Put into new tank, with no fish. Used Seachem Purigen bags which worked great to remove tannins very fast—highly recommend these—but I would need to use a bag every week. After 3 weeks of mopani wood in tank (still no fish, no live plants), and after adding API Proper pH 7.0 to stabilize, 3 days later I have whitish, jelly, soft bumps on some of my mopani wood, one piece is covered. The bumps are soft, kinda white or clear white with a tint of orange or light brown, gross looking. I am afraid to add fish. Do I need to start my whole tank over? What is this stuff??

 

[Andy Sager]

It may be sap oozing out. I've not used Mopani wood before but it looks just like the sap I get when cutting pine tree limbs. I would take a cotton swap and remove one of the larger bubbles and see if it's sticky. If it's sticky, it's sap. If it is sap, you can try boiling the wood to see if it forces the rest of it out. ( boiling it should thin the sap making it flow more easily out of the pores it's already created. In theory, the sap should not be toxic but I would use a test fish or shrimp or other aquatic animal to make 100% sure that it's not toxic to fish.
If it's not sticky, you may need to just let it ooze out in a separate container but at the same water parameters it's in now. Unfortunately when dealing with woods, you can't tell what's inside of them so you get these surprises.

 

[plecofish]

Thank you! Before I received your message, I removed the wood piece, scrubbed with a toothbrush, and rinsed. It is now drying. I’m going to see if the other pieces develop the same and will try your method.