I set up a 75 gallon tank about 3 weeks ago. Yesterday, I see this white jelly stuff growing on the undersides of the driftwood. The tank light has been off the whole time. I am cycling it with no fish. It simply has driftwood,3 moss balls and 2 plants(melted). I heavily used bleach and warm water prior to setting up tank. It had some green spotted puffers that died. I was concerned with the poison leaching in the tank. I took about 3 gallons of water from my 40 gallon and added additional 2 gallons of water directly into emperor 400 filter. Since the 40 gallon had algae growing in it, I thought this would also boost the bio faster.I couldn't use the filter pads from the 40, the bio wheels wouldn't turn(penguin 350) What is the the stuff growing on the driftwood and do I have tear the tank down and start all over? Do I need to bleach the wood again also?
White jelly looking stuff on driftwood
- Thread starter Rays of Sunshine
- Start date
Don't worry about the white jelly stuff on the driftwood, it won't hurt a thing and as soon as you put some algae eaters in tank, it will be taken care of.
Is there another option instead of the algae eater? I want this to be a native fish tank consisting of warmouth or pumpkinseed and catfish.
I didn't bleach, boil, or sterilize my Mopani wood in any way, I just soaked it outside in a big tub for a few months. It grew the jelly stuff several times, I would just blast it off with the garden hose once in a while. Eventually it quit coming back and I put it in my tank.
I think it may just go away on its own. You could try washing it off a few times.
I think it may just go away on its own. You could try washing it off a few times.
The white stuff is almost certainly a saprolegnia type of fungus. Just remove any excess that you can. Eventually it will disappear and be replaced by a bacterial/algal biofilm.
Fungus growth on drift/bogwood seems to be worse on pieces which leach out small amounts of sap. The sap-leaching obviously tapers off over time. Hopefully should all be gone in a few weeks.
Fungus growth on drift/bogwood seems to be worse on pieces which leach out small amounts of sap. The sap-leaching obviously tapers off over time. Hopefully should all be gone in a few weeks.
My driftwood did that, too. After a few weeks of scrubbing the goop off, it went away for good. Didn't seem to affect my fish, either.