# White Film Overnight - SOS



## OneLastDecree (Nov 13, 2012)

Hello again;

I am making this thread because of the following; 

I added driftwood, seen in the picture, and overnight I seem to have white film all over my HOB Filters. Before adding the driftwood, I did a 50% PWC. Currently there is a white film at the watermark where the 50% of the water was changed. 
Tried to take a picture with it; however, it is very hard to see in the picture. 


The driftwood was scrubbed with a basic sponge. This means it has no antibacterial chemicals in the sponge, etc. 
I didn't want to boil or soak the Malaysian Driftwood because I want the tannins to leak to create the South American Amazon Biotope appearance. 

I have attached the pictures to help describe the problem effectevley.

I'm thinking about doing a 75% water change and gently scrub off the white film during the change. 
I was wondering if this is the right course of action.
Other than that, what should I do. 

My water paramtars are as follows; 

Ammonia - 0.00 PPM
Nitrite - 0.00 PPM
Nitrate - 80.00 PPM
PH - 7.6 PPM

Tank is cycled and have been adding pure ammonia 2ML each day until fish are added. 
Shipment of Apisto's from Peru are here next week friday. 

Hopefully; this is resolved before then.


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

new driftwood usually gets some kind of fungus or something on it for a few weeks and its harmless.

Now getting it everywhere could be something or nothing. I am thinking because you didn't soak it or boil it at all at first, it just has more than we usually see and it will go away on its own.

Great thing is you have no fish in right now. What I would do is take the driftwood out and rinse it really well with very hot water and scrub it a little to remove excess of the white stuff. Try to manually remove the other stuff on the HOB.

Put driftwood back in and give it a few days.

Im pretty sure its just more of the normal junk that forms on driftwood at first than the usual and its nothing to worry about.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

I can't really see anything in those pics, but the white film is just mold. Take the driftwood out and clean it with a brush. Any mold in your filter will get broken down in time, don't worry.


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## Ryan.Wilton (Dec 12, 2012)

Yeah I don't really see it in the pictures, but driftwood does get fungus sometimes. It could also just be kick up from that sand after you added your 50% new water. You added the driftwood probably before this but no matter how careful you are sand always gets disturbed.


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## OneLastDecree (Nov 13, 2012)

Thanks for the insight, everyone. 
I did a 80% PWC and sprayed the driftwood with hot water for an hour. 

It has been 24 hours since then and the tank does look much better. 
Now, I have some white particles floating around. 
Is this normal? 
Didn't have it before.

I'm worried the symptoms may happen again when I get my livestock in this week. 
Blah. 
Is it threatening to fish?


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## OneLastDecree (Nov 13, 2012)

OneLastDecree said:


> Thanks for the insight, everyone.
> I did a 80% PWC and sprayed the driftwood with hot water for an hour.
> 
> It has been 24 hours since then and the tank does look much better.
> ...


Uploaded an updated picture. 
No more signs of white film.


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

Funny that we got 2 or 3 threads with the same thing at the same time. Did some store have a sale on driftwood?


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## OneLastDecree (Nov 13, 2012)

Well, I noticed that too. 
But my algae looked different from everyone elses. 
So created another post. 

Can't speak for the others but I purchased mine at Big Al's at Yonge / Steeles.


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

I recently bought a used tank that had some driftwood with it. I had it out for a long time and it totally dried out. When I put it in a tank and it had some of that white stuff on it and it had been used before.

So if you dry out wood an use it again, you can get the same white stuff again but not as much it seems.


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## OneLastDecree (Nov 13, 2012)

Makes sense. 
I see some white particles on the driftwood; however, I try to remove it by waving a chopstick near the wood.
Seems to float off and get sucked up the filter intake.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

Hmmm... I feel compelled to say this: an aquarium is not your kitchen counter. You can't treat it as such. There will always be things that you've never seen before, and you should not automatically assume that it's harmful.

In fact, most times you do more harm to the tank by trying to remove that strange thing than just leaving it alone.

An aquarium is a living ecosystem, and the most important living organisms in there are things you can't see: micro-organisms. In order to have a healthy, balanced tank, you *need* to let those micro-organisms go through their natural stages.

Right now, mucking around with your tank won't cause too much trouble, as you don't have fish yet. Once you do, however, you really don't want to do things like 80% PWC.


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## Ryan.Wilton (Dec 12, 2012)

PWC??? any % sounds like a WC to me, not a partial.


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## OneLastDecree (Nov 13, 2012)

Makes sense; I got the advice from another forum. 

I thought WC's were alright as I was told be many other threads that I should do a 90% WC the night before I add fish to the aquarium. 
To reduce the Nitrates to safe elvels for new fish. 
Since, alot will be accumulated during the fishless-cycle process.


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## solarz (Aug 31, 2010)

OneLastDecree said:


> Makes sense; I got the advice from another forum.
> 
> I thought WC's were alright as I was told be many other threads that I should do a 90% WC the night before I add fish to the aquarium.
> To reduce the Nitrates to safe elvels for new fish.
> Since, alot will be accumulated during the fishless-cycle process.


I would have to disagree with that. The principle here is that even though you don't have fish yet, you have micro-organisms in your tank. You want to treat these micro-organisms the same way you treat your fish: keeping stable parameters. A big water change is going to disrupt their life cycles.

If you're worried about your nitrates, first *test* them before doing anything. If they're really "through the roof", remember that 2x 30% water changes over 3 days is the same as a 50% water change, but is a lot less disruptive.


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## OneLastDecree (Nov 13, 2012)

solarz said:


> I would have to disagree with that. The principle here is that even though you don't have fish yet, you have micro-organisms in your tank. You want to treat these micro-organisms the same way you treat your fish: keeping stable parameters. A big water change is going to disrupt their life cycles.
> 
> If you're worried about your nitrates, first *test* them before doing anything. If they're really "through the roof", remember that 2x 30% water changes over 3 days is the same as a 50% water change, but is a lot less disruptive.


Alright; I'll do the 30% PWC every 3 days to lower my nitrates before adding my fish.


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## Ralfie Boy (Apr 18, 2011)

The white stuff is all the good bateria dying off from the water changes. Stick to weekly 25-30% changes.....if you have another aquarium use the dirty filter water to help re-establish the good bacteria in your tank.....the water tempertaure changes of adding water at a different temperature could also kill off the good bacteria....to get the dead floating bacteria off the water surface use a paper towel covering the surface of the tank...

good luck.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

Interesting idea Ralfie. I would not have thought bacteria die off would cause a white bloom all over, but I suppose it's possible. Certainly, constant change is not good for any organism, really. It's stressful.
But the point I wanted to make was that fungal spores are everywhere, all the time. Many woods actually have some antibacterial properties. There are studies that show wood cutting boards that are washed have far less bacteria on them afterward than the plastic ones we were all told were safer !
And once wood is under water, any fungal spores that landed on it are going to try to make a living. I have seen snails eat that whitish film off my wood, so when I see it on new wood, I'm not worried about it. I've never seen it cause harm to anything, not even shrimp. Snails also eat film off glass and anything else they can reach. The film is fairly easy to wash off, if you feel the need, just a brush will do the trick. 

But if the tank is cycled, why not stop using the ammonia and add something like a snail or two ? They'll eat any fungi off the wood, for starters, plus they will provide a real bio load to feed the filter bacteria as well. You should be able to get that 80 PPM nitrate reading down to a reasonable level before your fish arrive.
Just a suggestion.


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## OneLastDecree (Nov 13, 2012)

I would but I don't want snails to take over my tank in the future. 
Trying to make this tank snail free. 
Hehe.


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## pyrrolin (Jan 11, 2012)

there are snails and there are snails.

Its the ones we get by accident when buying fish and plants that are the problem, they breed like crazy.

The snails you would actually buy do not breed crazy and are totally controllable


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## Ralfie Boy (Apr 18, 2011)

you may wish to read this article on a bacterial bloom.

http://www.aquariumslife.com/freshwater-101/cloudy-water/

Good luck.


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