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I bought a piece of wood for my aquarium about 5 months ago. and at this time it is getting pretty covered up with green algae. i was wondering if their is anything i could do to get the wood back to looking more like a brown piece of wood, than a green object.

i have never tried to clean one before, but i was thinking about boiling it and seeing if that got the algae to come off? or is their any chemicals i could buy that would safely get the algae off so i could use the peice of wood again?

Thanks!

is it the bushy kind of algae ? or is it kinda spread all over it in a thin film ,,i have several chunks of mopani in my tank my bn plecos keep it really clean but it does every so often get a bushy looking clump of algea growing on it i just kinda pop it off with the hose on the water vac it gets sucked into the waste water

If the wood doesn't have too many nooks and crannies, you could just scrub it.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

its more like a thin film of really grean algae, and it does have a lot of nooks and cranny's on it so scrubbing wouldn't work out so well. would boiling it take the algae off?

Boiling will break down the wood (that's how they turn wood into a pulp for making paper after all ).
A few minutes won't destroy the wood in your tank, but it will smell pretty bad. Boiling wood that's been in a tank (or natural source) usually will smell, add the algae on top of that and you'll have a pretty big stink in the kitchen. Be sure to do it on a warmish day when you can keep the windows open. They may be getting pretty rare depending on where you are in the states.

I'd look to addressing the cause of the algae as well, or it'll just keep coming back. If you don't have live plants in the tank reduce the number of hours the light is on. If you do have live plants in the tank try adding more. Also consider how old the light bulb itself is. and the type.


^_^

it seems to me that a pleco might take care of that, if you can handle that size fish in your tank.

Babelfish is spot on.

You could boil, bake it in the sun, or do what ever you want to to remove it.
Never use chemicals, it will kill the algae but at the same time if the fish eat the dead algae this could cause other problems, it might also effect all your other plants as well.

But it will keep coming back until you work out what is causing the algae to grow on the DW.
Scott is correct that is one way to control it but it will not stop it growing.

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Keith

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