Washing off mould

[Wai]

I noticed some black powdery stuff accumulating underneath the piece of mopani wood in the tank, so I dug it all out. I'm not sure if it was mould. I put the dirty sand in a container and made sure there were no hermit crabs in it before pouring hot water into the container. I washed the sand a few times and it is now sitting in the open to dry. Will hot water reliably kill the fungi?

[ladybug15057]

Dunno? There are some mold spores that are heat resistant and cannot be killed. I had done a bit of research a couple years ago:
http://crabbywiki.com/tiki-index.php?pa ... rabitat%3F

Are you able to also give it a good soaking (about 24-48 hours) in double strength ocean water? Let it dry completely and keep a very close eye on it? (this may help a little more too?)
I think it was Chermo (sp) who had terrible issues with mold on wood and used something under her wood to keep it off of the damp substrate to prevent it from molding/mildewing.

[MomofFive]

I added some Mopani to our 10gal on day one we set it up. Three days later... green mold all over the wood
I took the wood out,scrubbed and boiled it for an hour in extremely salty dechlorinated water, then set it out in the sun to dry. It was all crusted with little salt crystals!
It has been 10+ days now and still no mold on the Mopani.
I am not sure if hot water alone will kill spores... why don't you try baking it? I would put it in a baking dish lined out with parchment paper.

[Wai]

Whoops, sorry I missed these replies. I flushed out as much of the spores as I could then rinsed with salt water before letting the sand dry. The mopani wood is now elevated above ground like my piece of cholla (which moulded even more quickly when it used to sit on the sand).