Would cyanide help in my aquarium? DDT? High levels of radioactivity?

[Cirith Ungol]

I have trouble with some wood I've collected.

The wood were old roots I cut off from rotting trees. My aim was to use those in an aquarium. I took them home, washed them, scraped them with a knife until I hit good wood, then put them in highly concentrated bleach for a few hours.

I rinsed and let them dry. Then I put them in the aquarium. (Nae worries, it only had water in it.)

After 2 days a whitish, thready, angel-hair like goo started to come out of the wood and hang down into the water like... goo.

I took it all out, sawed the roots into smaller pieces, and put them in the oven at 120C for 6 hours. The wood was bone dry after that.

I put them back into the aquarium, sure enough, the milky goo is just coming out again like nothing had happened.

I don't know. What is it? What can I do? What more do I need to do to kill it? Burn the roots to ashes with napalm and glue them back together? I'm all out of ideas.

Anyone?

 

[Crysta]

is there anything in the tank that could be causing it? Like was the tank cleaned just as good as the wood?

I knowthere are some pores that are almost impossible to kill, so you might be out of luck there...

Try new wood?

look here. something about mycelium.
http://www.gardenbanter.co.uk/united-kingdom/192790-white-fungus-coming-rotten-wood.html

 

[Cirith Ungol]

It looks different in the water, but my first bet would also be mycelium. So it's hard to kill then?

 

[Crysta]

some type of mycilia probably - maybe will never guess what kind xD
But that's what you described it as...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycelium
Hm a thread i found
http://forum.poppies.org/index.php?showtopic=8752 (offensive possibly...)

Is that your goo in the first pic?

Youd probably be better off starting with fresh wood, with what wiki says.. lol

 

[eruheru]

It survived a bleach bath? The only thing I can think of is that the wood is really porous so that the bleach wasn't able to soak into all the cracks etc, even though you had it in there for a few hours. Maybe try an overnight bath followed by a cooking? Do you have any other algae in the tank that is colonizing it, or is it definitely coming from the log?

 

[myrmecophile]

Was the wood cured, old, or was it fresh green wood. It is not unusual though for wood to do this for a time after going into a tank.

 

[myrmecophile]

It is not unusual for wood to do this for a period of time after going into a tank.

 

[Cirith Ungol]

It survived a bleach bath? The only thing I can think of is that the wood is really porous so that the bleach wasn't able to soak into all the cracks etc, even though you had it in there for a few hours. Maybe try an overnight bath followed by a cooking? Do you have any other algae in the tank that is colonizing it, or is it definitely coming from the log?

The tank is absolutely newly started. It was squeaky clean prior to this.

 

[Cirith Ungol]

Was the wood cured, old, or was it fresh green wood. It is not unusual though for wood to do this for a time after going into a tank.

It was dead wood, but not cured (like, kept indoors for a while). But I also put another piece of wood in there that WAS cured, had been kept indoors for years. And it too started doing it.

What do you suggest? Will this eventually stop by itself? Does it eventually drown? Can an algae eater take care of it and clean it for me? Because if yes I guess that would solve the problem.

 

[Crysta]

If it started on another peice of wood...maybe its the tank? or you have mold spores floatin' around your house...

 

[dtknow]

stop-stop-STOP! Stop bleaching, baking etc. it is not going to work and it will only come back.

Quite simply-rotting wood is yummy food for a wide variety of organisms. You won't be able to get rid of them(and if you were able to-your tank would be quite uninhabitable).

So what should you do...simply wait. Maybe put in some plants that you were meaning to. If the wood is appropriate for aquarium use the mold should decompose whatever material is easily digested-and then dissapear.

I've placed branches of various types into tanks. Some have grown slimy sludge-but it always dissapears eventually. If not, I would try a different kind of wood-perhaps what you have has a lot of sap or some other nutrient. Manzanita branches float like the dickens but if you can get them to sink and don't mind them being so smooth that plants usually can't grow on them-go for it.

 

[Cirith Ungol]

Thanks! I'll try just running the tank at a minimum then, maybe throw in a hand full of cheap algae eaters and some plants.

 

[zonbonzovi]

Yep, what dt said. I have used cured driftwood in my axolotl tank for a few years and like clockwork it gets strange growths every year when the sun overtakes the rain. I even had tiny shrimp-like creatures come out of nowhere and colonize AFTER drying the driftwood in front of a fireplace for several months.

 

[GiantVinegaroon]

It was dead wood, but not cured (like, kept indoors for a while). But I also put another piece of wood in there that WAS cured, had been kept indoors for years. And it too started doing it.

What do you suggest? Will this eventually stop by itself? Does it eventually drown? Can an algae eater take care of it and clean it for me? Because if yes I guess that would solve the problem.

There are many different species of fish called algae eaters, and not all of them eat algae.

How big of a tank is this? That's another important factor when picking out an algae eating fish. Alot of them get pretty big.