Weird Fungus/moss?

[Kaedious]

Hey guys hoping you can help,

Thai's Tank has been going well for a good 2 weeks now but ive recently noticed the drift wood has white particles on it and the water looks oily also the plants/driftwood are growing some weird brown moss.
Basically my question is it safe?

Ive included some pictures,












Hope this helps,

Kaed

[Phaydra]

The brown algae is Diatom. Don't worry it's perfectly normal in a new set up. It will go away on it's own just makes life a pain to keep walls, plants, and decor clean till then.

I can't say for sure on the white stuff. From looking at the wood it doesn't look like driftwood. It looks like dead fall or newly cut. Could just be as simple as the softer layers coming lose. I am sure someone here can confirm if it's something to worry about or just clean up.

[Kaedious]

Thanks for the reply Phaydra, Is Diatom Safe? Should I clean it off or just let the snail do all the work?

Yeah its Not really drift wood its more dead fall, if anyone can confirm what the white is id be very grateful.

[Phaydra]

I clean out as much as I can with my weekly cleaning. The rest I leave to the snails.

[Aus]

That's mold. It isn't a problem unless your fish have open wounds, in which case I'd remove the fish to a hospital tank to heal.

Shrimp love this stuff - a few RCS will clean it right up, if your betta doesn't eat them. Providing a mossy hideaway helps, there, and the shrimp chow on the mold much faster than snails (unless you have very large snails).

If mine gets really thick, I suck it away with the gravel vac (I don't have this issue in shrimp-populated tanks) and it eventually goes away entirely.

Diatoms (the brown stuff) can be a pain. I get it a lot in the tanks where the lights are close to the water and I can't adjust the height, but the primary issue is high levels of silicates in the water, which may or may not be helped by upping water changes a bit for a while - and I get this in the tank with gravel, not sand, so that seems not to be a major cause in my own case.

They'll go away, usually, but two of my heavily planted tanks always have some. I scrub it off at water change time, like algae, and it's not such a bother.

[babystarz]

Yeah that white mold is pretty common on newly added wood, if you've got snails they will help clean it up. The wood itself will be clear of it in a couple of weeks, but you may need to clean up the mold around it if it starts growing independently of the wood. I haven't had any residual problems with it myself.

The oily water surface will get better with water agitation, so consider turning up your filter flow if it won't bug your fish. Otherwise that will clear up on its own eventually too. It's all just part of the process of the wood adjusting and decomposing a bit.