White fuzz

caddis fly said:

Hi all! I recently set up my 20 gallon high as a planted tank about 10 days ago. At the moment, I have this very faint, delicate looking white velvet fuzz growing on just one of my driftwood pieces. What is this white fuzz and what, if anything, do I need to do about it?

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hey freiend do u use sand substratete?

Sounds like a bacterial bloom. I had it on a piece of grape vine that had it bad which I ditched. Someone else on here has the same issue within the past few weeks, I'd have to search for it though.

I'm currently having a small bout of it in one of my cubes. I've just been knocking it off with a pipette and doing daily water changes and siphoning it off.

I usually associate white fuzz with mold. IME it simply goes away after a while (couple weeks). I've seen some fish actually nibble at it. Don't know if it is particularly toxic, but I had no deaths at the time.

You could scrub it off, but it will probably come back; mold grows where it can find nutrients, your driftwood might just be rich in the good stuff right now.

I've never tried it, but boiling the driftwood for a while might break down the nutrients on the surface that the mold wants.

It's a bacterial bloom on the driftwood.

Let it be and itll go away by itself
All new driftwood grows these white fungas.. Totally normal and fish safe so don't worry.

Thanks for the input! Not using sand substrate, I'm using black fluorite by seachem. And I tried the boiling trick with all three pieces of my drift wood, but only one piece has the white fuzz. Boiled all three pieces for 4-5 hours with frequent water changes. I'll just keep an eye on it and do my regular water changes. Sounds like its a "new tank syndrome" occurrence? And it will go away on its own?

Not so much new tank as new driftwood, it happened to me in a well established tank.

It should go away just fine