Strange jelly

[ADMWNDSR83]

I plan to post some more and better pictures soon, but right now I'm not proud of how the tank looks.  The initial filling was still pretty cloudy after a few days, so I dosed the tank with SeaChem Clarity.  As that cleared, some strange clear jelly appeared on some of the surfaces of my spiderwood decoration.  I think it's the aftereffects of the clarity, but was hoping others may have some insight.  I've put quite a few  plants in (from Aquarium Co-Op of course), and discovered yesterday that I have a resident snail.  the plants now, almost a week later, seem to be in the height of the melt, so I'm hoping they begin the turnaround soon.  I did about a 30% water change today, and the cloudiness is getting clearer, but I am noticing that even with 3 days of soaking with frequent water changes, quite a bit of tannins are still leaching from the spiderwood.  Hoping that will clear soon as well.  I'd love your thoughts on the jelly, and on the set-up in general.

[Brandy]

That "jelly" I think is a type of water mold, which is reportedly harmless. I have had it on many kinds of wood before. You can manually remove it and it seems to just disappear abut a week or two after adding new wood to the tank. Looks alarming, but doesn't seem to do anything and resolves on its own. I didn't take this pic but it looks like what I think you are describing, and matches what I am talking about.

[ADMWNDSR83]

Thanks Brandy, that is what it looks like.

[ForestJenn]

You are not alone in wondering!  I searched all over the place for an answer when I started my tank back up.  Brandy seems spot on, although I read it was a bio film instead of mold.  Either way it's distressing if you don't know what it is.  

I've only seen it on spider wood which is actually a root (unless I'm wrong).  For me it lasted about two weeks.  It was starting to clear up and then I scraped it off with the gravel vac during a water change.  It didn't come back.

 

[Kat_Rigel]

I had it on my big piece of manzanita wood. There was SO MUCH and I tried to be patient and let it go away on its own, but I eventually wiped it away/pulled it out of the tank. As mentioned above, it never came back. I did have it show up on a few pieces that I removed from an aquarium for a few months, then put back in.