Mopani Wood

[Wes L.]

Has anyone ever had an issue with adding Mopani wood to a tank and then have BBA sprout? I've seen some old posts on here where people were struggling with BBA and a few mentioned that they had Mopani wood in the tank. My tank has been pretty algae free for the past 4 years. A couple months ago I started replacing the driftwood and spider wood with Mopani because the old wood was literally disintegrating. And a couple months ago I started having my first ever issue with BBA. The more Mopani I've been adding, the more BBA.

My nitrates have been oddly high, which I'm suspecting is great food for BBA, but of course the million dollar question is why is the nitrate level always high? My tank is 55 gallons and is sparsely stocked. I started doing a 50% water change twice a week...and still my nitrate levels get high very quickly. Then it just clicked today. All the BBA issues started when I added the Mopani. I'm wondering if Mopani decomposes faster than other woods and is causing the nitrate levels to remain high? There is a lot of Mopani currently in my tank and I was planning on adding more, but I hit the brakes until I can figure this out.

[nabokovfan87]

In my "extensive research" of the junk in my tank tormenting me, BBA/Staghorn thrives on rotting organic material.  It will go to the old / dying leaves, choke out the plant, and then move up until it's overrun everything.  Wood is rotting material, so yeah, it definitely will go ahead and use that surface. 

To give you an idea of how much I was frustrated with the stuff:
 

 

[Wes L.]

Very interesting. You were one of the ones I was referring to in my post who I noticed was having the same issue as me...and had Mopani wood in their tank. But what's odd for me is there is No BBA on my Mopani wood anywhere. It's only growing on my little rock wall in the tank and a bit on the Anubias. I actually took the plants out yesterday and dabbed Excel on them, so we'll see if this really works. I've never really had an algae issue before, so I've never actually tried any of the remedies. I'm so curious about your tank. Do you still have the Mopani in there and are you still having the BBA issue? The posts I read were from back in November I believe. How have things worked out for you?

[nabokovfan87]

On 1/17/2023 at 6:17 PM, Wes L. said:

Very interesting. You were one of the ones I was referring to in my post who I noticed was having the same issue as me...and had Mopani wood in their tank. But what's odd for me is there is No BBA on my Mopani wood anywhere. It's only growing on my little rock wall in the tank and a bit on the Anubias. I actually took the plants out yesterday and dabbed Excel on them, so we'll see if this really works. I've never really had an algae issue before, so I've never actually tried any of the remedies. I'm so curious about your tank. Do you still have the Mopani in there and are you still having the BBA issue? The posts I read were from back in November I believe. How have things worked out for you?

I have two separate tanks, so one of them has a ghostwood (similar to manzanita) and then the other has my mopani pieces as well as a chunk of "pacific driftwood" that I added.   It's not really anything to do with the type of wood, but I link it more towards whatever organic thing isn't doing well.  I have the stuff growing on pumps / plastic where there is high flow.  Cory also made a video (2nd from last) showing it in his 800G where it's only growing where the output flow is for him.  It's a weird puzzle and it's a very bizarre resistant strain of this stuff.  I think it's staghorn, but it's some form of red algae.  Whether it's BBA or Staghorn or something else, it's probably both.  Just an annoyance.

I still have it, still deal with it.  Something I'm trying to dive into a bit further on the algae experiments link in my journal.   Spot dosing Gluteraldehyde (Easy Carbon / Excel) works well.  You also need to be able to dose in enough that you actually make progress before it blooms.  Feasible?  yeah, in time, as long as plants are growing and you're out competing it, starving it out. 

In my case, I have the stuff growing on the seams of the tank, Kind of difficult to spot dose when it's THAT BAD, even it's not prevalent it's still going to always have some place to hide.  I have removed the parts on the substrate (hopefully) and then going thorough the S.Repens helped a lot to clean up that section.  It's a lot of day to day eyes on the tank and work to figure out where it pops up, how it progresses, and push back. 

Take the rocks out and treat those.  In my case, difficult because the plants are on them and it nuked my moss when I tried that.   It's back now, cleaning things up still, but definitely not over and done with..... not at all.  It's tolerable, but it's still an issue and I do need to add some more plants in there to choke things out.  Plans in the works, we'll see how cost helps or hinders that.

(I would drip the rocks in a solution of water + Peroxide).

[eatyourpeas]

I have Mopani wood in two of my tanks and can’t grow BBA (believe me, I’ve tried). The critters love to graze on it and it provides a good source of biofilm. The one thing I will mention is the water temperature in my tanks is on the cool side, 74F

I hope this helps.

[Emika_B]

I have several large chunks of mopani but I’ve never had black beard algae.  Hair algae, yes, but that was probably a lighting issue and it’s never come back.  Tank is medium flow I’d say, usually in the low to mid 80s depending on the day’s heat.  Don’t know if it’d make a difference but I do run a UV in the tank for about an hour a day. Hope you get your bba taken care of!

[lefty o]

i have bunches of mopani, and the only time ive grown BBA is when ive run the lights for way too long. id doubt the mopani is directly responsible, but likely it did slightly alter the balance in the tank between lighting, and nutrients.

[Wes L.]

Thanks everyone for your responses. It's clearly looking like the Mopani isn't the cause since others have it in their tank without having any negative consequences. I'm still baffled why my nitrates remain high. I just can't locate a source. I'm stumped.

[Andy's Fish Den]

On 1/18/2023 at 9:51 AM, Wes L. said:

Thanks everyone for your responses. It's clearly looking like the Mopani isn't the cause since others have it in their tank without having any negative consequences. I'm still baffled why my nitrates remain high. I just can't locate a source. I'm stumped.

Have you tested your tap water? Sometimes tap water can have higher levels of nitrate in it, and when you do a water change you are just adding more nitrate to the problem.

[Wes L.]

Yes, I have tested the tap water, and every time it came up as zero nitrates, which makes sense for me because I have a water softener system hooked up in my house, and a water conditioning system and an RO filter. I have extremely pure water, which is why I'm so stumped with this nitrate issue. But my new theory is it's coming from my hands. It's the only thing left. I live in the desert, so hand moisturizers are used a couple times a day. Supposedly it doesn't come off your skin even after hand washing, however I'm suspecting that's not accurate and maybe I'm polluting my tank every time I stick my hand in, which has been a lot lately because I have adopted a zero tolerance towards pest snails. If I see one, I stop and take care of it, so a hand is in that tank a few times a day. I just ordered so gloves that go up to my shoulder, so we'll see if that makes a difference.