My driftwood grew fungus. White fuzzy stuff. Eating the soft parts of the wood that is slowly decaying in the tank. I've read that this is normal, harmless to the fish, some actually like to eat it including otocinclus, which is a fish I wanted to get anyways. But that fish is also a little sensitive to new tanks, so I think I need to wait still before adding them. In the meantime, it's starting to look real nasty and spread onto nearby plants, clinging the gravel below the wood.
Today I took the trouble to pull out the two large driftwood pieces and scrub them off. Removed a lot of loose bark. I had tried to peel off all the bark and dig out soft parts w/pocketknife before, but apparently didn't do a good enough job, or more stuff loosened in the meantime.
The fungus removes easily enough. The plants had begun rooting themselves, but were clinging to the bark so of course they came off and I had to tie them on again. I don't want to do this a second time, so scraped and peeled w/pocketknife as thoroughly as I could. Hopefully by the time the fungus builds up again (as it's bound to do, I couldn't get all the bark out of knots and crevices) my tank will be established enough to introduce the otocinclus.
It looks much better now! Not only because the offending fungus is gone, but also the peeling of bark revealed more pretty wood grain. Unfortunately removing so much surface of the wood probably also got rid of a portion of my bacteria colony, so I'll have to be careful w/feeding and not add any new fish for some time, give it a chance to build back up again.
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