What is it?

[ThirdDay]

I have a 50 gal aquarium w/ live rock & fish. It has been up approx. 6mths. In my sump, I have lots of little white spiral things sticking to everything. They are very small & hard. They also seem to have a hole in the center of them. My amonia, nitrites, nitrates are fine. I bought a calcium test kit & calcium tested @ 300ppm. Can someone identify these from my description & tell me how to get rid of them?

Thanks

 

[Len]

Do they have little "feathers" coming out of them? It's hard to ID what they are without more detailed descriptions or a picture. From the sound of things, i could be anything from Vermetid "snails" to tube worms. Both form small, white spiralling calcium shells.

Good news is chances are, they're completely harmless and may actually be good for the biodiversity of the tank. If it were me, I wouldn't bother trying to get rid of them.

 

[Anonymous]

Feather dusters
A good thing means you are on the right track.
Some people get alot and some a little. I have a some that pop up and disapear and they some that have grown quite large, atleast 3 - 4 times the original size

 

[ThirdDay]

Sorry about the description. They are a little larger than a pin head & flat. They don't appear to be to be moving, just alot of them. (I would estimate 200.) I do have some small featherdusters in some macroalgae in my sump. They do seem to be confined to the sump. I will try to get a magnifying glass & look closer to see if they have feathers coming out of the center.

 

[Anonymous]

They do I bet leave em there, they are cool

 

[Anonymous]

Third day..i have the same thing..they look like little coils, or sideways snails...all white and all over...I thought at first they were some sort of calcium deposit...So now i dont feel like such a freak of nature, some out there has the same thing i do...I scrape them off every once in awhile..They seem harmless, actually they are starting to be less and less..this tank has been set up for 7 months now so who knows???

actually your Ca. is a little low for a reef tank...or is it an FOWLR?


8)

 

[Anonymous]

2x posted oops


8)

 

[ThirdDay]

Lord Nikon,

Glad to know I am not the only one also. I have 1 piece of coral & am planning a water change & adding calcium level up.

I looked at these guys w/ magnifying glass & they may be featherdusters, but they are still too small to really tell.

Thanks for all the posts & advice

 

[cdeakle]

feather dusters! I went thru the same thing. They are actually really cool and I would NOT scrape them off. It is a good sign that your tank is maturing and when they get bigger they will look really awesome!

-puff

 

[Anonymous]

are you 100% sure...If so im going to hell :twisted: , cuz god only knows how many ive scraped off


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[Anonymous]

Well, your going to scrape a few just keeping the front glass clear. So don't feel to bad.

Same with coraline algae. I grow the stuff everywhere now. Keeping the front glass clear is a pain.

8)

 

[Anonymous]

Redemption then ... however for mine and third days relief, are they really feather dusters???

 

[nick morgan]

Yes they are feather dusters. Don't remove them unless you have to. I have a 10 gal tank and they are all over the place. The tank has about 10lbs of live rock,Long hair algae and all sorts of other critters in it. I haven't done a water change in over a year and the water is neither pumped nor filtered in any way. Current occupants are two seahorses. When the feather dusters grow larger you will be glad you saved them. Your tank will look beautiful.

 

[cdeakle]

Lord N,

Going to hell bro! Duster murderer!!

Actually Mine have spread so rapidly that they are growing everywhere and I mean everywhere. Fealt really bad scraping like 20 of them off my powerhead while doing some maintenance.

I actually saw one come out the other day when my actinics kicked in, very awesome site!

-puff