Mold Issue in Paludarium

Hi all, I have a paludarium with a bunch of plants/orchids. The tank has very good air circulation with 2 pc fans (18 cfms each, so 36 cfm air movement in a 29 gallon tank). There is no mold anywhere in the tank except one small area...it's weird that this one spot has it but nowhere else, and I haven't had a mold problem in months. Anyway, the mold is a very fine fuzzy texture, sort of grayish in color, and is creeping over some moss...unfortunately it's very close to my Bulbo. minutulum and Bulbo. catenarium which are tiny, rare species. There are no animals in the tank, but if possible I'd still like to use a non-toxic treatment for the mold...also I am hoping I can use something that will not kill the live moss and liverworts I have all around the plants. Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

Looks like I'm SOL I guess? I may have to use something toxic then, but apply it carefully and try not to let any runoff spread around in the paludarium. In terms of fungicides, how about Daconil? Could this be applied to the substrate around the orchids (which is where the mold is growing) ?

 

Great idea! I am not familiar with using hydrogen peroxide for this purpose. Is there a specific type I should use, or would the stuff from the drug store work? What % strength do I use? Mix with water?

Also, what do you think about Daconil?

Thanks

 

Thanks for the info and help, everybody. I just looked at the mold and it seems to be spreading and looking pretty nasty...also the newly growing leaf on the only growth of my Bulbo catenarium just browned and rotted off (MAJOR BUMMER)...whether that is a result of fungus, or overwatering, or something else, I don't know. But I do want that fungus out..I had picked up some Daconil today..I just decided to use it regardless of its toxicity, just to make sure to really put the smackdown on any fungus around my micro bulbos. I thought the Daconil would be a misty fluid, but it came out of the spray bottle as more of a gel...was unexpected. I used a q-tip and gently blotted the goo around all over the moss and tried to get it all on the mold. Whether this will kill the moss or do other bad things to the tank, I don't know, but I do know that mold has to go before it engulfs my rare orchids...

 

Thank you for this information...very interesting! I will have to read up more on this. What animals do you have in your vivariums?

 

I water/mist everything in the morning or afternoon, so it's all dry by night. Also, at night I remove a small section of the lid to drop the humidity and temps a little.

 

Thanks, I agree this is what is happening in my tank. I think what has happened is that one of the bromeliad pups has grown too large and blocked the fan air from reaching the orchid/moss beneath it. My tank has been 100% consistently mold free for many months, until recently...the bromeliad getting larger and overhanging the orchid is the only change that has occurred. I'm going to cut that brom pup off and hopefully that gets the air movement back to what it should be for that area.

For those that are wondering, there is no forced ventilation or air exchange from in/out of the tank, except at night when I remove part of the lid for passive ventilation / cooling. The internal circulation at the strength I've had it at for months has been great, with no problems until now.

 

Update...
I removed the large bromeliad pup so there should be much more air circulation over the orchids/moss. The daconil also appears to have annihilated the mold (so far), and surprisingly there doesn't seem to be too much damage to the live moss...but it's only been a day.

 

The mold has returned, but doesn't look as bad this time. I'll probably spray the Daconil again, since it appears to have worked pretty well last time and also didn't seem to negatively affect the live moss. Will keep updating.