# Dry start MOLD problem...



## me_too_lazy

I'm trying to do a planted 20 gallon long tank
This is my first planted tank and from what I read, dry starts are the way to go.

Anyway, I came across 2 problems that I didn't really see coming

1) Mold is starting to grow on the driftwood lol...
there might be mold growing on rocks too but they probably blend right in.
So I guess I should take em out and clean em and pour boiling water on them
Doesn't seem like any mold is growing on the HC, which is good.

2) My substrate isn't even, I wanted the back to be higher up and kinda work its way down
I know I'm supposed to keep the water level maybe a cm or 2 beneath the substrate
but since my substrate isn't leveled to begin with, I can't keep the water level even for all the HC

tank when first started 2 weeks ago















I'll take pics of what it looks like now tomorrow


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## Bien Lim

since the hard scape is done just take out the wood and put it in a bucket or something with water to get it water logged, once it soaked for a couple of weeks it should not get mold again.


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## vdub

You could always spray some peroxide onto the mold if you don't feel like moving your hardscape around.


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## crimper

Hi Barry,

As Bien said, soak your wood until it is water logged and put it back once you are ready to flood it. You don't want that to float when all your HCs were already settled. I would give the wood a quick bleach bath to get rid of the mold or fungus. You can also use peroxide as vdub mentioned.

Having your substrate slightly elevated at the back is a bit of a challenge on maintaining the water level as you dont want the HCs submerged in water (yet) or you dont want your substrate to dry out. The solution is to give them a constant mist especially the elevated part when the substrate starts to dry out. keep the water just a bit lower (about half cm or so) than the substrate in front. 

Dont put too much light as you don't want the mighty green stuff forming on the surface of your substrate


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## me_too_lazy

Thanks everybody, i'll take out the wood immediately then
I'm giving it 5 hours of light everyday right now
seems ok, no green stuff yet lol

I might get bored one day and decide to flood the whole thing and connect the CO2 tank lol


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## crimper

Patience my friend... That's what HC teaches you :bigsmile:


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