# Ghost-like substance on my driftwood



## MikeWinLDS (Mar 29, 2004)

Does anyone know what that is? I hope it doesn't harm my fish or plants.


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## Sir_BlackhOle (Jan 25, 2004)

I have heard that driftwood sometimes grow some sort of fungus, but its harmless. Whether or not thats what you have i dont know.....


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## Steve Pituch (Jan 25, 2004)

I have had the same thing happen. I believe the substances released from the wood make the surface habitable for the white slime (fungus or whatever it is). It may change the pH.

I kept soaking the wood but everytime I put it back in the tank I got the slime again.

Steve Pituch


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## MikeWinLDS (Mar 29, 2004)

Spituch, is that fungus-like slime harmful to fish or plants? I've boiled it over 2 hours the before I put it in my tank, and I've noticed that the inside walls of the tank are a little slimy now. Has anything bad happened to your tank because of this fungus?


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## Steve Pituch (Jan 25, 2004)

No. The slime was just on the wood. Since it is so unusual, I doubted it would spread. I ended up not using the wood. The tank was fine. I didn't get a slimy film anywhere else in the tank.

Steve Pituch


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## depthc (Mar 7, 2004)

Im unsure if this would relate to your situation. But if you leave a dead fish in a tank long enough for it to decay it seems to form a thick clear substance over the body. Now im unsure if this is normal or just something that happened when i was a noob. So maybe the wood is decaying? Huh but that wouldnt explain it being on the tank walls now would it? :? 

.dc


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## HeyPK (Jan 23, 2004)

It is a mixture of fungi and bacteria. The coating on the glass or other objects is bacteria that are growing on soluble organic matter diffusing from the wood. I don't think you would get this microbial activity from really old driftwood that has spent years in water. I think it is harmless. If you had snails, they would eat it and you would never know you had it.


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## cactusdoug (Feb 17, 2004)

It is a Fungus, I thought I had the scientific name for it somewhere but I can't seem to find it.

I've had before and it does eventually go away, it is harmless and will not affect anything else in the tank.

As Heypk says, snails will eat it, Chinese Algae Eaters also seem to enjoy it.

Doug


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## Daemonfly (Mar 21, 2004)

I had that on some malaysian wood when I initially put it in my 20g.

I found a quick way to get rid of it. Took the wood out, got a toothbrush & just lightly scrubbed it off with some Hydrogen Peroxide then rinsed the wood off. Never came back.


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## aquaverde (Feb 9, 2004)

I had a terrible, persistent case of this with a piece of Florida driftwood. Peroxide and boiling did not help, but some nerite snails cured it.


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## kclendinning (Aug 29, 2005)

Thanks for these answers. I woke up this morning to finding these little ghosts all over my new 65 gallon tank. The plants have been in the water for 4.5 days, fish (4 black phantom tetras & 3 glowlight tetras) for 3.5 days. The CO2 system has been working for 1.5 (had some problems I finally fixed). I was shocked to see this stuff floating all over the tank and hanging from various plants. The tank does have driftwood, which I saw had some white growth on it. I scrubbed it off prior to putting the plants in. The driftwood was sitting water in a tub outside for about 3-4 days, then I put in the tank where the tank filter & lights have been running for a week before the plants were added. 

Do you think I should ignore this fungus for the rest of this first month, as the tank cycles? One of the glowlights doesn't look and/or behave 'normally'. He has been hanging near the top of the tank. None of the other tetras do that. I plan to get some type of algae eater when the month is done...


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## amber2461 (Jun 15, 2004)

Daemonfly said:


> I had that on some malaysian wood when I initially put it in my 20g.
> 
> I found a quick way to get rid of it. Took the wood out, got a toothbrush & just lightly scrubbed it off with some Hydrogen Peroxide then rinsed the wood off. Never came back.


I did the same thing with mine but it came back, so I dropped in a gravid Japonica shrimp and she finished it in under 2 minutes ... wow ... a definite good investment.

Cheers


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