Stinky Spiderwood

[Ogpulchra]

I started soaking a bunch of spiderwood I bought from a big box store a couple of weeks ago and it smells terrible, like rot. I initially had it in still water for a week, noticed the smell and pulled it out to clean off the biofilm. I put it back in a tank with clean water, airstones and a sponge filter, but the smell is back after a day. 0 ammonia in tap and water from driftwood tank is between 0 and .25 ppm. It's barely darker than the tap water.

I've never had spiderwood smell like rotten garbage before. Has anyone else experienced this? Should I give it more time or maybe soak it in a mild bleach bath?

 

[Guppysnail]

Yes my air pump quit on a bucket once and I did not notice it. Pour hydrogen peroxide on it and let it sit out for 10 minutes. Clean the bucket and everything.  Return the wood. The bacteria that cause that smell are still present and continue to produce the smell is what I guessed when it happened to me.  After the peroxide I had no further issues.  

[Torrey]

On 5/3/2022 at 9:27 PM, Ogpulchra said:

I started soaking a bunch of spiderwood I bought from a big box store a couple of weeks ago and it smells terrible, like rot. I initially had it in still water for a week, noticed the smell and pulled it out to clean off the biofilm. I put it back in a tank with clean water, airstones and a sponge filter, but the smell is back after a day. 0 ammonia in tap and water from driftwood tank is between 0 and .25 ppm. It's barely darker than the tap water.

I've never had spiderwood smell like rotten garbage before. Has anyone else experienced this? Should I give it more time or maybe soak it in a mild bleach bath?

 

There were several batches of spiderwood during the pandemic that people had similar complaints. It wasn't limited to a single country, either, and some of these were experienced aquarists who had never experienced it before.

Guppysnail is correct, the H2O2 is the most effective, and least risky, to eliminate the rotting smell by eliminating the bacteria, and then the H2O2 breaks down into water and oxygen. 

[Brian]

I have had a whiteish bio film on several different types of driftwood over the years.  All with a moderate to pretty bad odor.  Nothing bad ever came from it, in fact a lot of fish, snails and shrimp love to eat it.

Goos Luck

[Nicohorse318]

I just installed two large pieces of Spiderwood into my new 50 gallon display tank, and I went the route of boiling it/soaking it in H2O2 etc.

When it was soaking in the H2O2 and even afterwards while it was soaking in just water (to waterlog it, son of a gun wouldn't sink!), it just released a lot of tannins into the water. The minute I put it into the tank with a cycled filter (no fish/plants yet), the white biofilm started to develop over about a week. YUCK. 

I left it in there for a few days, but got sick of looking at the white film and pulled it out. It did smell disgusting, like wet socks, and that white biofilm is enough to make you gag, but it came off with just a little scrubbing and running water. I put the wood back into the tank, finally added snails/fish and the snails had a ball munching on any little spots of the biofilm that came back.

That was 2 weeks ago, and the smell is gone, so is the biofilm. I really like the look of the Spiderwood so I will use it again, but I am glad I know what to expect now.

 

Best of luck with your Spiderwood, @Ogpulchra. I hope the smell stops for you.