# Driftwood developing slime



## Passthesalt (Dec 11, 2011)

I bought a nice piece of driftwood from a lfs. After sitting in the tank for a week it started to develop a fuzz and that fuzz grew. Pulling the wood out of the tank it shed some of its fuzz, now turned to a slime, into the tank. I washed the wood down with bleach but not sure that all slime/fuzz has been removed. I'm soaking the wood now in the bathtub to make sure that all the bleach is gone.
is there a procedure for new driftwood? Should I treat the wood again with something else? Is this driftwood ruined because I used bleach?
Thanks


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## Diztrbd1 (Apr 21, 2010)

no expert on this and there are a few treads pertaining this issue that you may be able to locate through http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/aqua-lounge-7/bca-search-function-24773/ 
I usually soak my DW in boiling or extremely hot water for a day or two. It doesn't stop this from coming back as it maybe something to do with the natural decomposition I believe..... though not really sure myself. I have read there are some bottom feeders that remove it, not sure what though. Otherwise I just clean it off when it reoccurs. It will eventually disappear in my experience. DO you know what kind of wood it is? The wood should be fine , have seen many use bleach on it. But you definitely want to make sure all the bleach is out, so I would soak it good.....in boiling water if possible.


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## AWW (Apr 22, 2010)

Its pretty common for that to happen with newer driftwood I believe. This happened with my new piece of manzanita wood. Its probably because they have never hit water before. 

If i am not mistaken, you can just scrub it off. Should stop reappearing after a few weeks, provided the wood is 100% dead.


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## jbyoung00008 (May 16, 2011)

IMO bleach it again if you are concerned. I used to get algea on my driftwood that I found fishing on the vedder one day. I bleached the heck out of it. Soaked it for 15min in a bleach/water mix. Remove the bleach water than add new water and use aqua safe plus water conditioner since it declorinizes bleach. Soak it in that for a bit. I put it back in my tank. No more algea at all and its been months. I tried boiling it and scraping it on a regular basis with no change before. Bleach was the trick. If you are worried about the wood having bleach on it let it sit outside in the sun for a day afterwards. Thats if it ever stop raining. LOL


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## Passthesalt (Dec 11, 2011)

Thanks guys, really appreciate the input
Cheers


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## Jasonator (Jul 12, 2011)

Very common - I have always noticed my pleco's dining on it..... mmmmm


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## Sherry (Apr 20, 2012)

OMG...I don't think I personally would use bleach as the wood I would think be pourous. You may not get rid of the bleach now. I highly recommend getting a pleco. Mine LOVES the wood. I have had wood in my tank for about a month now and no sign of fuzz on mine. I read somewhere that if you have a pleco that wood is a given. They apparently like to chew on it and mine does for sure. Can't stress that enough. And the bleach thing....tread lightly. Oh ya....I did boil my wood for a couple of hours to get rid of the tannin.


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## Passthesalt (Dec 11, 2011)

The piece of wood is 2 feet long so can't boil. It was wrapped in a cocoon of slime 1/2" thick all around. Mixed a diluted bleach solution and wiped the wood down then hosed it down in the shower. It felt slime free. I then filled the bath tub with water and prime. I let that sit till the water slowly drained out. Repeated that twice then kept the wood out of water overnight. The next day it didn't smell and felt normal. I put it back into the tank. It wanted to float so I weighed it down for 24 hrs. Still buoyant but staying put. 24hrs after that came the slime again.
Yes, I could get a pleco but I have sword plants and vals. Apparently plecos like swords so it's a no go. Darn, because that would be an easy fix then.
Guess I'll just have to let it take its course.
Here's a recent photo of it developing again:


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## Scherb (Feb 10, 2011)

Hello. i have had amazon sword and vals, and my bnp never eat them i never even herd of that. maybe with a common pleco. i had a common pleco once, about 6 inches and he would wreck plants by trying to clean them, cause he would put his weight on the leaf and bend it right over or break it. but you would be fine with a bnp, they max out aroun 5 inches. Bnp, aka, bristle nose pleco would be a good choice, silver tip and albino are pretty common and not too hard to find. all the bnp i have had are great cleaners and don't get lazy like a common pleco when it gets big. if i were you i would get 2 or 3. Hope that helps. Cheers


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## Scherb (Feb 10, 2011)

Passthesalt said:


> The piece of wood is 2 feet long so can't boil. It was wrapped in a cocoon of slime 1/2" thick all around. Mixed a diluted bleach solution and wiped the wood down then hosed it down in the shower. It felt slime free. I then filled the bath tub with water and prime. I let that sit till the water slowly drained out. Repeated that twice then kept the wood out of water overnight. The next day it didn't smell and felt normal. I put it back into the tank. It wanted to float so I weighed it down for 24 hrs. Still buoyant but staying put. 24hrs after that came the slime again.
> Yes, I could get a pleco but I have sword plants and vals. Apparently plecos like swords so it's a no go. Darn, because that would be an easy fix then.
> Guess I'll just have to let it take its course.
> Here's a recent photo of it developing again:


Nice tank, nice rams. i am a ram fan. Cheers


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## macframalama (Apr 17, 2012)

STOP USING BLEACH ... GOOD GOD ..... no bleach

that fuzz/slime is the natural decomposition of the wood and the start of algae begining to grow, very normal for all driftwood to go through an ugly stage and bn plecos and royal plecos and im sure 23456789 types of plecos love that stuff, just get a nice pr of bn plecos and your problem is gone, you keep bleaching it your gonna end up with a tank full of dead fish and plants,


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## macframalama (Apr 17, 2012)

just read you want to go plecoless, im sure there are plant safe snails too or otto's


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## Sherry (Apr 20, 2012)

I have a bristle nose...pretty small right now and haven't tried him on wood yet so this will be interesting. As soon as my common is too big I plan on getting another bristle nose pleco.


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## JohnnyAppleSnail (May 30, 2010)

It's a Crapshoot with BNP's and Sword Plants,I have a Planted 90gal where the Plecs softly graze on the Swords,on My 33gal Planted Tank they've damaged the Sword Plant (not thrilled about it) where the leaves are transparent from grazing on them, so damage "can" definitely happen. I find when Young and Smaller they're the worst culprits. I had the same problem with the Slime,the Bristle and Bushy Nose Plecs got rid of it in a day when I introduced them to the Tank, a heck of alot easier than cleaning yourself.


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## Passthesalt (Dec 11, 2011)

JohnnyAppleSnail said:


> It's a Crapshoot with BNP's and Sword Plants,I have a Planted 90gal where the Plecs softly graze on the Swords,on My 33gal Planted Tank they've damaged the Sword Plant (not thrilled about it) where the leaves are transparent from grazing on them, so damage "can" definitely happen. I find when Young and Smaller they're the worst culprits. I had the same problem with the Slime,the Bristle and Bushy Nose Plecs got rid of it in a day when I introduced them to the Tank, a heck of alot easier than cleaning yourself.


Ya, that's what I figured - a crapshoot. And I'd rather not take the chance of trying to catch him in my tank later after the damage has started.
I've got assassin snails (don't want pests) so introducing other snails is out.
ottos are an option however the tank is stocked with Rams and should they start spawning...well. I'm also raising the water temp to about 82-84 degrees and not sure if ottos can take the heat.
It looks like I'll have to wait it out. Darn


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## roshan (Jul 19, 2010)

I had a piece like with fuzzy stuff, wished i had left it there as my Pleco, Snail and Corys were munching on it but i got a bit paranoid it was algae, so i took it out scrubbbed with a bursh and hosed it down with hot water, it has been a week and no more fuzz issues.


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## Passthesalt (Dec 11, 2011)

Lucky you. My cories are not interested in it and assassin snails I don't think feed on algae


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

Just take it out and scrub it off if you don't have the patience to let it naturally die off.

http://www.bcaquaria.com/forum/plan...-get-rid-fuzzy-stuff-new-old-driftwood-28112/


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## Shell Dweller (Jul 11, 2010)

I have a 5ft log in my 120 gal that continued to produce white fuzzy slime when i first put it into the tank. I tried bleaching it in the bath tub, power washing it, and scrubbing it. Each time it came back within days. So I found a large deep stock pot, put the stump end into it, supported it with a ladder so it wouldnt fall over and boiled it for two hours on each end. Problem solved.


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## The Guy (Nov 26, 2010)

I went through the same fuzz issue with most of the wood I have in my tanks, it seems to be a natural order of events with the wood being in the water. I just left it alone and the bottom crew looked after it. I'm not so sure bleach is a good idea IMO.


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## macframalama (Apr 17, 2012)

bleach bad....


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## roshan (Jul 19, 2010)

macframalama said:


> bleach bad....


I had the same thought for many years, untill a member mentioned that you can bleach wood and then after, soak it in dechlorinator for at least 24 hours. I tried this on some wood that had hair algea on it have had no issues after putting it back in my tank


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## Sherry (Apr 20, 2012)

Algae is good for your fish. It was recommended to me that I leave the back wall alone to grow algae because the fish love to graze on it. I'm telling you...plecos are awesome for that. My tank is so clean and watch him regularly dine on the wood I have in there. That said I did boil (only to remove tannins that will discolour water) and it is store bought wood.


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## Passthesalt (Dec 11, 2011)

roshan said:


> I had the same thought for many years, untill a member mentioned that you can bleach wood and then after, soak it in dechlorinator for at least 24 hours. I tried this on some wood that had hair algea on it have had no issues after putting it back in my tank


+++++++++++++1


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## Passthesalt (Dec 11, 2011)

Sherry said:


> Algae is good for your fish. It was recommended to me that I leave the back wall alone to grow algae because the fish love to graze on it. I'm telling you...plecos are awesome for that. My tank is so clean and watch him regularly dine on the wood I have in there. That said I did boil (only to remove tannins that will discolour water) and it is store bought wood.


I agree algae is fine but as has been mentioned, it can be a crap shoot regarding well behaved plecos.


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## skrick (Apr 25, 2010)

The slime is fine just rinse off with garden hose 2-3 times as it developes its harmless


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## Tiwaz (May 5, 2011)

I have had good luck with rubber nosed plecos and ottos. Clean wood and no plant damage.


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