Put together a new 12 gallon, below, and have it all cycled. There are several trumpet snails and pond snails in the tank and an assassin snail (the prior are his food) along with seven pygmy cories who are a hoot and a holler to watch.

There are some broad micro swords and some dwarf baby tears in the tank. They are still trying to acclimate though I don't have the highest hopes for the baby tears. Also, not in the picture as it's an older one, I have some christmas moss growing on the wood in the tank. (not pictured as it was added later and the marimo ball removed as well)

Here's my problem. The wood, just some sand blasted manzanita, has this really weird sludge like stuff on it. I'm used to most, if not all, of my woods growing a clear gelatinous goo that goes away after a week or so. But this has turned brown and very whispy - almost like hair algae. My thought is that the goo has just mixed with some diatomous algae and is being whipped around by the current which makes it look like hair algae.

Any clue if I'm correct or if there is something else at work here? This is going to be a mainly shrimp only tank (anyone have some snowballs for sale?) but I'm going to get some Otos tomorrow and see if they'll chow down on this stuff. It only seems to be on the wood but when I wipe it off it just lands on a plant and smothers it.

TL;DR - I have a gelatinous brown goo growing on my wood. I think it's the normal fungus that gels up on most wood in the first week or so mixing up with brown algae. But would be curious if anyone else has another thought.

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I like big fish tanks and I can not lie. You other brothers can't deny.

I had the same ectoplasm-looking stuff on my lace rock in the beginning as well. If the wood had anything like moss or lichen growing on it, that stuff takes FOREVER to go away. The only other thing I can think of is that it might be BBA, caused by excess of nitrates or phosphates. Do you know the concentration of either in your tap water, by chance? My tap water tests high for phosphates and medium for nitrates.

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Officially fishless until after the move....tune in later for details!

I'm not positive on my phosphates and such as I don't test for them. However all of my tanks have a brown algae bloom in the first month usually so these days I pop in the phosphate absorbing media right quick to keep them in check during the initial few months. It's all concentrated on my wood so I'm pretty sure it's a combo of the clear goop from the wood and then some brown algae. Assuming that's true it'll fade. I hope. Ahhhhh fish keeping. A science of guessing for me! :D

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I like big fish tanks and I can not lie. You other brothers can't deny.