Growth on Driftwood?

Question

is it algae? is it good or bad? my driftwood looks like a reddishbrown trunk from the petshop... and the growth im seeing are like very fine fibers ranging from white-dirty white-brown in color.... and i only have danios on my aquarium.. also i dont want to get a pleco.. it doesnt look attractive.. hehe...

Answer 1

My guess is that you have a "beard" algae, or at least that's what the darker fibers are (see photos - heavy infestation of black beard algae: http://www.plantgeek.net/articles/gg_algae_faq/bba1.jpg infestation of lighter colored beard algae: http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Algae/brush-algae-small.jpg ). There are lighter colored ones as well, but you might also be seeing a "fungus" called Saprolegnia or Achlya growing on decaying matter (on a dead bug: http://www.visualsunlimited.com/images/watermarked/227/227311.jpg ). The "fungus" would be able to be identified as something other than the beard algae because it would have a small "knob" at the ends of some strands if you look closely: http://www.syndel.com/images/bs2-saprolegnia.jpg , http://www.vijversenkoi.be/artikels/ziekten/saprolegnia/saprolegnia1.jpg

The beard algae is tough to eliminate. About the only thing that will eat it are Siamese (not Chinese) algae eaters. It needs less light to grow than green algaes, so turning off the tank lights may not be enough. You pretty much need to control nutrients in your tank (and the wood itself can be a nutrient as it slowly decays). It also doesn't like higher pH levels (and the wood will act to decrease the pH). You might need to remove the driftwood and soak it in boiling water and give it a good scrubbing. If that doesn't work, you might have to do a surface-sterilization of the wood. This involves soaking the wood in a 1 part bleach to 19 parts water soluntion for at least 15 minutes, then rinsing very well to remove any bleach traces. This is safe to do as long as the wood is rinsed adequately, and I'd add a little dechlorinator (a few drops more than what's needed for the water volume) to the final rinse as a precaution. This may lighten your dirftwood, but it will regain the color.

If fungus, you could try the boiling method, but this is almost impossible to rid from tanks. The spores are in most water, and while it won't usually attack anything healthy, it will attack decaying matter.

Answer 2

If it's only on the wood and not anywhere else, you may just have a wood fungus. In this case, it would normally be very soft and fuzzy looking, and if you took the wood out it would smell funny. Reddish brown wood - is it mopani by chance? If so, this makes this an even greater possibility.

If this is the case, it's simply a reaction wood has if it wasn't treated beforehand to be used in an aquarium. It looks bad, but it's completely harmless to the fish and will stop growing on its own within a couple of weeks. For now you can remove the wood and wash it off, but I wouldn't scrape it off into the tank water, it'll just mess it up.

Answer 3

This sound like Black Beard Algae
Black beard algae is a form of "red algae" in the genus Audouinella that commonly attaches to edges of plant leaves or drift wood and is more common in low CO2 water conditions, that are low in minerals, carbonates, and pH. Good cleaning procedures such as removing decay is helpful in removal of this algae as well.
I also physically take out rocks and wood that have this on it and scrub it off, that will also give plants a better chance of utilizing nutrients and over coming this algae.

Please reference this article in the algae section near the bottom of the article for identification:
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/AquariumPlants.html