# Whitish slime on new driftwood?



## webgirl74 (Jan 30, 2009)

I just finished cycling a new 20 gallon tank and bought a cool gnarly piece of driftwood from a local fish specialty store. Prepped the wood when I got home and rinsed off all the loose bits. I've had driftwood in many of my tanks in the past but have never seen this happen. Ovenight, the wood is now coated in a layer of semi-transparent whitish slime. Doesn't really feel slimy to the touch, but it sure looks weird. The fish don't seem to be acting abnormally. Is this normal?


----------



## dtress3 (Jan 27, 2007)

While I can't remember exactly what the whitish slime is, I remember having it on my driftwood when I set up my aquarium. Did you did a fishless cycle? I know that it is not harmful. I used to take the driftwood out and rinse it off occasionally. It eventually went away.


----------



## kmuda (Nov 27, 2009)

Yep... the white slime is a normal thing, especially with Mopani wood. It has to do with SAP leaching out of the wood. The stuff sure smells bad. Otherwise it's harmless. Some plecos (and some other algae eaters) will actually eat the stuff.

You can minimize both the amount and how long the slime will occur by prepping the wood, which is a long process. My usual method is to boil the bejesus out of (like cooking a pot of Pinto Beans) over a weekend, then soaking it in a bucket of salt water during the week, changing out the water in the bucket whenever it starts looking dark, and then repeating this process of a period of a couple of weeks.

If boiling mopani wood, make sure it's not one of the "good pots" as SAP boiled out of the wood will collect at the top layer of the surface and permanently stain the pot. Your house will also start to smell a bit swampy as the wood "cooks".

An alternative process is to just soak the wood, but this involves months instead of a couple of weeks. The repeated boilings knock a large time frame off of the prep time.

This same process also minimizes tannins released from the wood once it's added to the tank and (if boiling) eliminates the possibility of bringing in any nasties with the wood.


----------



## webgirl74 (Jan 30, 2009)

It's not Mopani wood, although I was going to buy a piece of that for the tank originally. It's surprisingly heavy though, and the store was charging by the pound, so the piece would have cost me over $40! I thought that was a little steep for a piece of wood, so I bought a type of wood that is much finer looking with lots of twisty branches. I haven't had any issues with tanins leaching into the water, but the slime is getting thicker and sort of waves in the current now. The fish seem to actually like the slime layer though and I'd say they've picked away at close to half of it. I have an algae eater that I'm temporarily housing in the tank and he likes it too. Only problem now is I come home from work and there is so much poop on the sand I'm having to siphon every day just to keep it clean! Little piggies! :drooling:


----------



## hydrophyte (Dec 16, 2009)

I have had that stuff appear on driftwood several times. It's harmless. If you don't like the look of it you can clear it away with a toothbrush.


----------

