keeping driftwood clean?

[chen]

I've always had trouble keeping my driftwood in my tanks clean although I do weekly water changes. I'm about to get a new 400gal acrylic tank and was thinking of trying to add a couple very large malaysian driftwood. No plans to put in any substrate. Stock are 4-5 p13 Rays, a tigrinus, couple azul bass and a red aro. not too sure if I wanted to add a pleco or not since i've got rays in there and worry about the rays eating the pleco....I've in the past had things growing on the driftwood and they weren't plans...some furry looking things with expensive rays and other fish I wasn't too sure if these were safe so I removed the wood altogether...any suggestion on how to keep the drift wood clean? "Might" consider getting a blue eye pleco to keep the driftwood clean...

 

[dwightdstjohn]

where the furry things black and about 1/3 of an inch long in clusters? the ph of your water usually affects black moss.

 

[FSM]

probably just algae...maybe black brush algae. Harmless.

Plecos don't eat it.

 

[chen]

yes, exactly that!

 

[brianp]

Although unsightly, I seriously doubt that anything which is likely to grow on the wood will be harmful to your fish. However, if you want to use wood and avoid growth, I would suggest either Malaysian driftwood or Brazilian Ironwood. Malaysian is very common and easily obtainable. In my tanks, it has exhibited only minimal...essentially negligible growth. Sometimes a new piece will generate a few strands of filamentous fungi or algae. Once its removed, it shouldn't return.

 

[chen]

thanks guys. my lfs just receive a large shipment of malaysian driftwood...some fairly large ones...perhaps i'll pick up a couple for my tank...they would be the only think in the tank....deco wise!

 

[Poklei]

a flagtail will solve the problem

 

[chen]

yeah...had issues with Flagtails and rays...they tend to try to keep the rays clean too...lol....

 

[MONSTERUP]

JUST ADD SOME ALGE DESTROYER!!!

 

[bgcoop8784]

in all my cases, malaysian is great except for the first month, always gets covered with a white fuzz, harmless, but just not pretty, luckily it goes away after about a month and doesn't come back.