Dry start problem

[CinGA]

I may have screwed up and I’m almost crying at the thought. I did a dry start method. Rocks, substrate and a lovely piece of driftwood that I put moss on and let it attach during the dry start. However, the wood has developed some weird mold and I have people telling me this is going to ruin my tank and I’ll be tearing it all down in a month. 
 

I am getting my stem plants this weekend and was going to flood it then. Please help!  If I have screwed up, what can I do to fix this?

Photo of the wood and mold for reference  

 

 

[Guppysnail]

If you can pull the piece of wood and soak it in plain seltzer water for 9 hours in the dark it should kill the mold. 
Moss loves seltzer so no worries about it hurting the moss. 

Wipe any exposed areas when you are done to remove the dead mold. 

Here is the detailed article explaining what we called Reverse Respiration 

 

[CinGA]

Interesting!  I’ll try it - that’s the first suggestion I’ve gotten that wouldn’t kill my moss too. And it’s doable in the time frame I have. Thank you!

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

I did a dry start and got mold on my wood too (white mostly) and I spot treated with Hydrogen Peroxide (because I wasn't going to move the wood once placed. Poof! Gone! 

[CinGA]

Just for the record, wow, yeah, hydrogen peroxide melted it all!  I’m still going to try the reverse respiration simply because there’s so many nooks and crannies in that wood, I can’t be sure I got it all off, but the peroxide did wonders.