18x18x24 with a drainage layer, substrate barrier, about three inches of coco and sphagnum mix, springtails added at setup, and a large piece of cork and a driftwood branch. Two weeks in there is white fuzz creeping across the driftwood and a patch on one cork edge. Humidity sits around 80 percent and I mist twice a day. The gecko is not in yet. Do I scrub it, take the wood out, or leave it alone?
One clarification since people mix these up. White fuzzy strands on wood are almost always harmless saprophytic fungus. What you would actually worry about is fuzzy patches on a living animal, black growth spreading across the glass and silicone, or a persistently sour smell from the substrate. None of those describe what you have.
A slight earthy mushroom smell in a new tank is fine and expected.
The smell test is a good one. Healthy bioactive smells like a forest floor after rain. If it smells sour or like a drain, you have anaerobic pockets in the substrate and that is a real problem worth fixing.
Twice a day misting at 80 percent with a fresh tank and no animal is probably more water than you need. You can back off to once a day, or once every other day, and let the substrate handle the humidity. Constant surface wetness on the wood feeds exactly what you are seeing, and cresteds do better with a proper wet and dry cycle than with permanently damp.
This is also why you cycle for four to six weeks before the animal arrives. The bloom passes, the plants root in, the cleanup crew builds numbers, and you find out about any condensation or drainage problems while there is nothing living in there to worry about.
If it genuinely bothers you visually, wipe the fuzz off the display side of the wood with a cloth and warm water and leave the rest. It comes back, but it lets you live with the tank while it settles, and it does not disturb the substrate at all.
@leaky_bucket_ed · 3mo ago · 4 replies
Leave it alone. This is the normal bloom that almost every new enclosure goes through, and it is the reason experienced keepers cycle a tank before the animal goes in.
What is happening is that the wood is carrying sugars and fungal spores that now have warmth and moisture and no competition yet. Your springtail population is still tiny two weeks in. Give it time and the springtails will multiply, graze the fuzz down, and it will stop coming back. Typical timeline is three to six weeks from setup.
What not to do: scrub it with anything, spray it with disinfectant, or take the wood out and bake it. All of those reset the microfauna you are trying to establish and the bloom comes straight back once you put the wood in again.
Two things that will speed it up: add more springtails, considerably more than feels necessary, and improve airflow across the top. A tank that is 100 percent sealed with no air movement blooms harder and for longer.
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@gainstage_gil · 3mo ago
The add more springtails advice is right and people always underdo it. A single culture cup into an 18x18x24 is a starter, not a population. I seed two or three cups and then add a fourth a month later.
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@lifetimes_lena · 3mo ago
Nearly every new build goes through this and a lot of new keepers tear the tank down over it. With no animal in yet you have the easiest possible version of the problem, which is one you can simply wait out.
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@crashloop_cara · 4mo ago
Worth adding a slice of mushroom or a piece of squash on the substrate for a few days. It concentrates the springtails visibly and gives you a real sense of whether the population is establishing or not.
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