Bacterial bloom sadness :(

[toad]

I had originally wanted to do nothing but plants in Atlas' tank, but changed my mind (because I love a nice hardscape!), and bought him a pretty piece of mopani from petco.

This is the 3rd piece of mopani I've purchased, and the first 2 only leeched tannins into the water, which I didn't mind. But, I boiled this one (and not the others) and put it in the tank yesterday - bam! Disgusting cloudy water and a film on top. Slime up the sides of the tank. Bleh!

I changed the water yesterday morning (before the wood went in), and again today when I got home from work. It doesn't seem to be bothering him.

But, I am wondering if I did something wrong in boiling the wood? Since the water was fine until the wood went in, and it was the only thing that I added... I didn't boil the other pieces and that water has been just fine

[Aus]

It's not bacteria, it's white water mold - which just loves mopani wood to pieces, every bit of mopani I've had has grown a massive bloom of mold.

Good question about the boiling, though. I've never done anything but rinse the dry pieces before adding them. The mold grows thick, I add shrimp and snails to the tank, they eat it all, and all is well.

It also tends to vanish on its own after a few weeks, but since it's often a kind of saprolegnia mold, it can actually grow on existing wounds and fin rot on fish (not that my fish have wounds or fin rot) so I prefer to have the shrimp clean it up and keep it from re-growing.

The pleco also made short work of the mold on my last batch of wood. Apparently, a lot of critters find it tasty, including little micro-beasts.

I wonder if boiling the wood might actually trigger rapid mold growth, reading this? Or whether boiling doesn't hurt the mold spores much at all, and that particular piece of wood you used was loaded with more spores than the others?

I think some experiments might be in order!

[toad]

EW!


I assumed it was bacterial because I seem to recall this happening before, in my 10 gallon tank... That tank has no real wood in it, and I blamed the crappy water on the moss ball I added It magically went away on its own after about a week.

Hmm... looks like one of the baby pond snails might have to go stay with Atlas for a while!

I boiled this one because I thought I saw something that might have been mold on it, and I thought the boiling would make it nice and clean

ETA: Ah! Yes, this is the thread from the last time nasties took over one of my tanks: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread....light=slime%21