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Hello veteran turtle owners. Last week I introduced a piece of Mopani wood into my 37 gallon tank. The tank had been set up and running for 1 month; Thursday I did a 90% water change and filter carbon change. The Mopani wood had been soaked for 4 days and then I boiled it for 15 minutes per surface area since it had be be rotated in the pot several times. All surfaces received at least 15 minutes of boiling. I put the wood into the freshly cleaned tank and noticed today that a brown wispy and flowing fur was growing on part of the wood. I have read in several posts that owners would soak their wood for up to several weeks or months to reduce tanins. Since some owners reported that tanins were mostly just a problem with discolored water, I chose to introduce the wood without further soaking. I did, however, take Steve's recommendation to boil the wood to kill bacteria.

Does anyone know if the wispy brown fur is a result of not enough boiling or possibly something else? I am very willing to boil it for longer if that helps to eliminate the wispies but would prefer not to soak it in room temperature water if that just reduces water cloudiness. The turtles have been loving the piece of wood so I want to make a decent effort. If no amount of boiling will fix this problem, then I will find another "junge gym" for them to play on.

I currently have a sand bottom, water is 78F, Fluval 406 filter, 37 gallons tank filled to approx 32 gallons full, red heat lamp with 91F basking area, UVB bulb over basking area as well. I've removed the Mopani wood and put it in room temp water to soak until I hear from some folks with additional wood experience. Thanks in advance!

I wish I had a good answer for you. I have 7 piece's of mopani. I let it soak for several weeks until there were almost no tannins in the bucket. All my mopani wood is fine except one piece had a white almost cotton looking growth on it. I took it out of the tank and boiled it. I put it back in and it came back. That piece is now nothing more than a piece of wood in my rock garden. I'm not sure why I only had problems with one piece?

Thanks Kansas. PetSuppliesPlus told me I have 30 days to bring it back if it didn't work out. I'll try boiling it again for even longer this time to see if that makes a difference.

If you like mopani wood and want to make it a little special I will tell you something I did and really like. I took a piece drilled a hole in it and attached a fake plant to it using a hot glue gun. Turned out nice. At least you can return the piece if it doesn't work out but I would say don't give up. I suspect some pieces have some type of bacteria/algae? I might boil my one piece again and try it one more time. I just bought a piece of drift wood that is soaking in the tub. Can't wait to put it in the tank. Good luck.

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Does your wood stick out of the water surface or is it completely submerged?

It's completely submerged in the tank. It sticks out in the pot for boiling though; that's why I rotated it so many times to get all the surfaces. Is fully submerged preferred?

No, you can do what you want, I was just trying to think of what it could be. I would try some diluted bleach if this turns out to be fungus.

I have seen a "fur" similar to this when I put 2 peeled grapes in the old 10 gallon tank. It took the turtles a while to eat them and apparently the sugar caused some issues. I'll try the diluted bleach idea; I was affraid to try bleach but when Steve suggests it, I'm willing to try it. Thanks!

Thanks, just make sure you have the room to throughly rinse it afterwards

It's usually mentioned to use this amount:
2 oz to a gallon of water which makes a weak solution. Rinse well repeatedly and let air dry for 12-24 hours.

Proof that I'm still learning things. Never thought of bleach. Thanks.

I rarely use it... The first time was to regenerate Purigen.

Me too. For some reason I think Bleach + turtle tank = Bad.

A fuzzy fungus is very common on submerged wood. I got it with my driftwood and panicked until some searching on fish forums revealed it is common. Apparently harmless and will go away in less than a week.

ljapa, did the fungus invade your whole tank or stay sequestered to the wood? Like I mentioned to Steve, I had a whole tank fungus (algea?) problem with a grape treat I once gave them and won't make that mistake ever again. I'm willing to see if it goes away on it's own but only if it doesn't mean I'll have to tear down that whole tank for another cleaning. Thx for all your help guys and gals!

Just on the wood, but in very strands.

If it's invaded the tank, it's something different than what I saw.