whtie stingy stuff (what the ^%# is that?)

[sawyerc]

I'm setting up a new 55 gallon to replace my old one and so far it has a few pieces of rock from the old tank with mushrooms and xenia, a few pieces of manmade rock that's been curing for about two months, and a very shallow bed of argonite. This has all been in there for about a week and a half. Today, when I checked the tank for the first time in a few days, I noticed white stringy material connected loosely to much of the rock - individual strands coming off of the rock in about 20 places per rock. When pulled from the aquarium it seems to be a clear stringy material that is slightly sticky. It is odd that anything is sticking to the rocks because the Wave2k unit is moving the water like crazy. All water parameters seem pretty normal though pH is slightly higher than I would like. The corals seem very happy: the mushrooms have good extension despite the extreme current from the wave2k, and the xenia frags are already open, though not very plump, even though I cut them, and beat them up, and rubberbanded the to the rock. Could this perhaps be coral slime ? There's a lot of it! And not much coral. Any other ideas? Organic or not?

 

[myreeef]

Probably some tube worms that were out fishing for food until you hoinked away their fishing lines. There are many things that capture food particles by such means. That is my guess at what it may have been.

 

[Ocyurus]

I tend to agree with myreeef. Your situation sounds almost identical to one I had a few years back. Thin white tubes coming out of the rocks in numerous places and pulling material either on or through their tubes back into the rock. They never did anything malicious and it would seem they were actually a benefit to the tank.

 

[sawyerc]

hmmm... the only wierd thing about this is that they were predominently on the manmade rocks. I would be surprised if there were THAT many tube worms in the new cement rcok that just went in a week ago. On the other hand, there were many on the old rock, so I don't think it was something specifically from the new rock. Also, these strands are about 3 inches long. Thanks for the insight guys.

 

[sawyerc]

Any other ideas? They're all over the place. And I mean ALL over the place!

 

[Mouse]

Ocyrus, your avatar rocks, very cool 8)