Fungus HELP!!

[whtknightgdhart]

A few months ago I had a Black hair algae outbreak, cleaned up that and now just recently started getting white fuzz all over the wood and plants, removed the wood (that had been boiled numerous times, soaked for weeks in prime and peroxide) seems to originate from the wood and spreads... any ideas??

 

[flamechica]

White fuzzy stuff on new wood in your aquarium is normal and if you let it run is course, it will go away. However, I have never seen it spread to plants before....and I have plants growing on most of my wood pieces. Interesting... I am interested to hear what others have to say about this.

 

[whtknightgdhart]

I think I'm just better off getting rid of the mopani wood all together, looks nice but has been a nightmare, and no matter what i do to it, it just doesn't help. It's probably been boiled well over 24 hours in total, soaked for 2 weeks in almost straight peroxide, soaked a week in a water/ prime mix, and it still sprouts fungus. after removing it a few days ago the rest of the tank cleared up. after some research on several forums, it seems the white fuzz is harmless to the fish, but it does kill the plants, they seem to dissolve. and the wood wasn't cheap and was purchased at a reputable dealer, not some river find or anything.

 

[flamechica]

Weird. I have mopani in all my tanks. I have gotten the white fuzz on almost every piece. It's common. I just leave it alone though. It's part of the wood being new. I read it is better to just let it do it's thing and it will go away and it always has. I have never had it spread to or harm my plants in any way and a couple of the mopani pieces have plants growing on them.

 

[Betty]

I've had that form on some of mine as well. My bristlenose plecos take care of it so it's not been a problem.

Do you have any algae-eater type fish in the tank?

 

[whtknightgdhart]

I have a medium size pleco, 2 albino corys, a regular cory and just added 2 gold Chinese algae eaters.

 

[whtknightgdhart]

whatever this is, the algae clean-up crew i have don't touch it.

 

[flamechica]

I never saw my corys or pleco eating it either. It just went away. But to be fair, I never see my pleco eat anything, because I rarely see him.

 

[L190]

Flamechica is right, the fuzzy stuff will go away eventually. I remember when I had my shrimp tank, I filled it up with tons of wood. All the wood developed the white fuzzy stuff but it all went away. I'm not sure if the shrimp ate it or if the fungus/bacteria ate all the nutrients in the wood and starved to death.

 

[LuminousAphid]

Since you have boiled/disinfected/done everything but autoclave the damn wood, I'd say the thing is already an agent in the ecosystem of your tank and just uses the wood as food for an outbreak. Agreeing with everyone else, it will go away on its own after the wood 'cures' for a while. I had a piece of driftwood that did the same thing. I think I had either some red cherry shrimp or ghost shrimp that would eat it, but I think people seem to be over the whole shirmp thing (I was over it when mine kept dying) and you couldn't have big fish in there in that case.

I would just leave it in if you like it and let it run its course, or keep it out if you want.