Brown Fuzzy Fungus on Driftwood

[PlantedVirgin]

Hello friends,

I have been noticing a brown fuzzy fungus growing on parts of my driftwood (pictures soon). My plecos won't even clean it off.

My tank is 90 gallons half planted with angels, cories and plecos. I have had this up and running for almost 3 years and have not added anything is months.

I am concerned the fungus might kill my fish. Any ideas? I do 50% water changes 2 times weekly with 50/50 RO/Tap. Temp is 83 degrees (F). I have 2 Fluval 405's filtering this tank. Lighting is just a T8 growth light as it is a low-tech tank. Bulb is only 3 months old running 10 hours a day.

As I said, all was going well until a couple weeks ago, but nothing added in months.

Thanks,

PV

[Blitz]

I would pull out the driftwood and scrub it off good. Don't use chemicals though, just water and a good scrubbing.

[Acro]

You can always bake it if you are worried, then once it's cool, put the wood back in.

[PlantedVirgin]

Thanks guys for the advice. I scrubbed it and left it outside in our continuing winter weather at 15 degrees F

The problem I have is, what could have caused it to begin with?

[Kathyy]

Have you been vacuuming the substrate lightly when you do the water changes? I wonder if a build up in organic matter is allowing algae to start doing its thing after 3 years?

If the surface of the wood is soft that makes a nice place for algae to start growing as well. I would do more than scrub, I would scrape the surface of the wood with a dull knife to get rotting stuff off.

[Acro]

The wood could have just been aged enough. Whatever was in the wood/water was already there or came in. There are always fungi spores in the air, remember that.