I have quite a big piece of driftwood in my 4ft tank. Ive recently noticed little "tufts" if you like, of black fluffy looking stuff, kinda like a little plant growing all over the wood. Is it dangerous? Should i take the wood out and change it?

Anyone? Surely im not the only one thats ever had this stuff grow in their tank lol

It may be fine

If you dont want it on the wood take the wood out and boil it

It may be fine

If you dont want it on the wood take the wood out and boil it

Oh ok cool, i may do that. It doesnt seem to have much of an effect on the fish yet, but just wanted to know what it was.

Hi Shaymis,

It is not dangerous just annoying. It sounds like you have Black Beard Algae - see article here: http://www.csd.net/~cgadd/aqua/art_plant_algae.htm

The easiest way to get rid of it is to pull the driftwood out, make sure there are no fish hiding it it or plants attached, give it a good scrub and pour boiling water over it. Any remaining algae will go red or white and fall off after a few days. You will need to fix the water conditions causing the algae otherwise it will come back.

Cheers,

Matt

Thanks so much Matt

Very helpful response, have a great week

yes i would agree with Matt that it is black beard algae. We have recently had quite a bit of white beard algae growing in the eel tank at work. Its not bad just unsightly. Best way to get rid of it is manual removal then look at the causes... Lack of water changes? Overfeeding? etc...

Grrr, I hate that stuff. IMO it is nearly impossible to get rid of the spores once you've had it in the drfitwood. I had a piece that sat outside in the sun for 2 whole weeks and a week after putting it back in the tank there's blimmin blackbeard all over it again-nowhere else in the tank, just the drfitwood! That's some pretty tenacious algae! :evil:

*driftwood* :oops: Lol

Try boiling it rollergirl

Best way to get rid of it is manual removal then look at the causes... Lack of water changes? Overfeeding? etc...

I do a 25% water change once a week usually. Feeding them once in the morning/night with flake food and then every 2-3 days i chuck in some blood worms, also an algae flake every week for my Pleco.

The water is always clean, its not in direct sunlight or anything. Ill try boiling it and then leaving it in the sun for a few days. Thanks for all your suggestions

did you buy the wood?

did you buy the wood?

Yeah i did, from Hollywood

how long have you had it?

Or you could invest in some Siamese algae eaters, Hollywood has those for $12 each.

I've found them very useful for hair/fuzz algae, they are also known to eat black beard algae.

A good thing to do would be boil the wood, kill most of it, the old grown algae, then buy some siamese algae eaters, when new algae appear they'll eat it up.