# what on earth is growing on my driftwood?



## black_lung (Dec 19, 2006)

I recently set up a brackish aquarium that's in the process of going through a fishless cycle. It's been up for two weeks, and has a considerable amount of mopani driftwood in it, most of which was leftover from a previous tank I had. 

I purchased one new piece a few days ago, and within hours of being placed in the tank, was covered in a low growing grey/white mucus-like slime..it's not fuzzy like fungus typically is. So I took the piece out, scrubbed, boiled and soaked it. In less than a day after being back in the tank, the slime is back. It produces bubbles and when taken out of the water smells like rotten meat, and it's only occuring on this particular piece of wood. 

What is this? Should I try disinfecting it, let it soak for a few weeks outside the tank, leave it be, or just give up on using it in the tank?


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## Karebear (Oct 6, 2008)

I would get it out of the tank. If you really like the piece of wood, then try soaking it for awhile in a bucket or something and see if it cleans up for you. It may or may not be usable, time will tell.


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## Jlanders001 (Mar 31, 2009)

Put a powerhead/pump in the bucket so the water will not be so stagnate.

JTL

Use your brackish tank water for this. That way you can start getting some bacteria on it to help with bio-filtration


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## prBrianpr (Nov 18, 2007)

I have the same problem and use ramshorn snail and in 5-6 hours the eat the slime and algae and the driftwood looks like new, I think that this gone when the driftwood are completely clean (outside and inside)


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## davemonkey (Mar 29, 2008)

I also had a peice of wood do this. I got too busy to mess with it and it eventually went away on it's own (about 3-4 weeks) .


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## nvision (Jul 29, 2004)

yup don't fret, it'll go away in a few weeks. i've kept these for several years and it's normal.


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## Sophie (Feb 12, 2006)

Nerite snails will also clean that stuff off, they seem to really like it.


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