[madman19710]

i was forced to tear down my first tank a while back and when i got ready to start up again the person who got my rock gave some back very nice of him after a couple of weeks i noticed these little white things they look like sesame seeds what are they good or bad ??????? thanks in advance for any input.

[Reefland]

madmann19710,

For the life of me I can't think of the name of these, it has been discussed here many, many times. They are a type of small feather duster which are pretty common in tanks. Often there is a huge explosion of them and they cover rocks and walls of the tank but they are harmless. Small little filter feeders, nothing at all to worry about.

[madman19710]

Originally Posted by Reefland

madmann19710,

For the life of me I can't think of the name of these, it has been discussed here many, many times. They are a type of small feather duster which are pretty common in tanks. Often there is a huge explosion of them and they cover rocks and walls of the tank but they are harmless. Small little filter feeders, nothing at all to worry about.

thanks i was stumped...

[zhenya]

Have you tried touching one of this things?If yes,do they feel hard to the touch?
I had some foraminiferans explosion about 8 month ago,to the point when all rocks were covered with them at night,even some areas on the glass. They did die out though and I don't have any now. I supouse they starved.
Forgot to add the link with the pic

http://www.reef.edu.au/asp_pages/secb.asp?FormNo=10

[madman19710]

Originally Posted by zhenya

Have you tried touching one of this things?If yes,do they feel hard to the touch?
I had some foraminiferans explosion about 8 month ago,to the point when all rocks were covered with them at night,even some areas on the glass. They did die out though and I don't have any now. I supouse they starved.
Forgot to add the link with the pic

http://www.reef.edu.au/asp_pages/secb.asp?FormNo=10

they are hard to the touch these dont move as far as i can tell day or night just multiply could it be eggs of some kind

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by madman19710

they are hard to the touch these dont move as far as i can tell day or night just multiply could it be eggs of some kind

It's hard to say without looking at it,if you could post a pic of one of them perhaps someone could pinpoint the id,however even then it is very hard.

When I said that I saw foraminiferans during the night time,I did not mean that I saw them move.It's just that during lights on period I did not see them,mostly at night when I looked with the flashlight and some assistance of magnifying glass.
I used the pic from the link that I posted and looking through a mag.glass to id mine. I simply removed few and used a 10x mag.glass that I bought online at some geology site
FWIW, I would keep an eye on them but I don't think you have anything to worry about at this point.

[MontanaRocknReefer]

See if you can find your answer here:

http://www.reefs.org/hhfaq/pages/mai.../faq_rock1.htm

[Reefland]

madman19710,

It took me forever to find a picture but is this what your looking at?

[madman19710]

Originally Posted by Reefland

madman19710,

It took me forever to find a picture but is this what your looking at?

yes it looks pretty much like that what is it? thanks in advance.

[Reefland]

The May issue of ReefKeeping magazine had an article that contained a bit of information about these. The short of it is they are Spirorbids, a small feather duster which causes no harm other than sometimes they can be so numerous they are a bit unsightly.

Personally I have never bothered them and after the intial explosion, they numbers begin to decrease. I would leave them be.

[madman19710]

Originally Posted by Reefland

The May issue of ReefKeeping magazine had an article that contained a bit of information about these. The short of it is they are Spirorbids, a small feather duster which causes no harm other than sometimes they can be so numerous they are a bit unsightly.

Personally I have never bothered them and after the intial explosion, they numbers begin to decrease. I would leave them be.

i will not worry about it anymore . thanks everyone.