White webbing-like substance in tank

[Frogger]

Originally Posted by Myka

Frogger, do you realize that there is an air stone in the tank which makes it look like there is about 10x the amount of white strings?

Not sure I clearly see the airstone.

The amount of webbing looks to be a hundred times worse than I have ever seen. His webbing is growing up to the surface and along the surface in dense mats. And like I said I have thousands of these little monsters, every inch of rock in my tank has between 5 to 10 snails.

I have found that if I avoid heavy feeding with the pumps on they do not bother any of the corals in my tank at all. More unsightly then anything else.

[BCTugboat]

I looked around a little deeper and couldnt find anything that looked like a vermetid snail. Its a small tank so it cant be hiding THAT well. Ive read that it may be a type of bacterial bloom as well. My live rock was uncured, and my ammonia is around the first positive mark on the API saltwater test. I'm going to do a water change when I get home from work and see if that helps when I test tomorrow. I'll probably end up doing another 20% the day after tomorrow if its not better. I'm wondering if the ammonia spike, and possible subsequent bacterial mats, are due to my brittle star being unheard from in a few days. Will post updates later.

[604reefer]

Originally Posted by Frogger

Not sure I clearly see the airstone.

The amount of webbing looks to be a hundred times worse than I have ever seen. His webbing is growing up to the surface and along the surface in dense mats. And like I said I have thousands of these little monsters, every inch of rock in my tank has between 5 to 10 snails.

I have found that if I avoid heavy feeding with the pumps on they do not bother any of the corals in my tank at all. More unsightly then anything else.

I agree... I have some vermetid snails and never seen even a fraction of this amount of webbing.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by BCTugboat

I looked around a little deeper and couldnt find anything that looked like a vermetid snail. Its a small tank so it cant be hiding THAT well. Ive read that it may be a type of bacterial bloom as well. My live rock was uncured, and my ammonia is around the first positive mark on the API saltwater test. I'm going to do a water change when I get home from work and see if that helps when I test tomorrow. I'll probably end up doing another 20% the day after tomorrow if its not better. I'm wondering if the ammonia spike, and possible subsequent bacterial mats, are due to my brittle star being unheard from in a few days. Will post updates later.

Well if the tank hasn't finished cycling yet then it probably isn't vermetids.

[BCTugboat]

Thats the thing, its been set up with live rock since day 2 or 3 for over a month. I "ghost fed" tropical flake until my brittle came in. He ate the flake so I kept feeding it til recently. It should by all means be fully cycled by now. I found the brittle star earlier and he's alive and well. I'm a little lost, but I've done a 20% water change and I'll test the water in the morning. The ammonia level didnt seem to have budged since yesterday, still at 0.25 ish.

Upon researching featherdusters some more, i found that when they sort of panic (like when placed in a new tank and handled by human hands) they sometimes release all of their sperm into the water as a sort of last ditch effort to spread their genes if they die. I think it may have been that, though it does look a little different.

Still probably thinking bacteria though.

[Myka]

So these strings are still there? Could you post a pic with the air stone and flow off?

[BCTugboat]

The strings are gone. They appeared when I put my worm/hermitcrab/cleaner shrimp in. They were gone the next morning. I used a turkey baster and took some out the night of, and I think the filter got the rest.

[BCTugboat]

Originally Posted by BCTugboat

The strings are gone. They appeared when I put my worm/hermitcrab/cleaner shrimp in. They were gone the next morning. I used a turkey baster and took some out the night of, and I think the filter got the rest.

For updates sake if anyone is still interested;
There has been no sign of this webbing since the first time. My tank water parameters are dang near perfect I would say. 0 ppm ammonia, 0 ppm nitrite, between 5 and 10 ppm nitrate. Clean clear water and happy inhabitants. Looking for an NPS coral soon actually, as the tank is doing quite well.

[Myka]

Well that's really weird. Maybe it was something spawning.