Annoying barnacle like white specs taking over

[sho14u]

My tank seems to be invaded by little white crusty specs that kinda look like a cross between a barnacle and a sea fan. Bought the size of a pin head. They seem to like all my live rock, sea shells and even the glass of my tank. They took over my refugium and even stopped up my sump pump. I have cleaned out my refuguim and pump and did a 1/4 water change and cleaned the glass. Any idea what these damm things are and how to get rid of them?

 

[Boomer]

They are tube worms, called Spirobids

http://www.fortunecity.com/marina/customhouse/60/scheme.html

 

[sryder]

i saw these in the hitch hiker id section. they say they are harmless. they also say they will lesson in a more established tank. what are your thoughts on them boomer?

 

[Boomer]

They won't hurt anything, they are just filter feeders. They will diaapear on their own in time, so don't worry about them

 

[wrightme43]

On getting them out of your pump take it out and soak it in vinager for a hour or so. then run it in the sink. Vinager will disolve the tube for you. HTH Steve

 

[sho14u]

Thanks guys for all the info. The only thing is, everyone keeps leaning towards Spirobids, but all the research that I have been doing on here and on the net, shows the curly Q things and mine look a lot like barnacles. I will see if I can take some better pictures. The good thing is that they seem to be going away. They like shade in my tank so I flipped over all the live rock and shells and stuff that they were growing on, cleaned out my sump, did a partial water change, and they seem to be dying. Thank all of you guys for your help.

 

[wrightme43]

Well they may be barnicles of some sort. I am trying to find the pictures you PMed me about. I am having trouble. If you are sure they are not spirobuds, then people can keep looking for things. If there is anyway or if you already have got a close up, could you direct us to the photo? Steve

 

[NaH2O]

Here are some barnacle images: Reef Images - Barnacles

Since they seem to be dying off after cleaning up, then it may have been a population explosion due to excess nutrients. Keep up with the water changes, and watch your nutrient input. They may die back even more. If you can get a better close up, then we might be able to get a better ID.

 

[sho14u]

I took a peice of live rock out of my tank and took a picture of it. Sorry if the pictures aren't the best, damm auto focus. They are mainly congregating on my live rock, sea shells and dark places. Should I take out my live rock and do something with it to kill them? Thanks for the suggestion of Spirobids Boomer, but they are not curly Q'ed. They look like a white barnacle about the size of a grain of rice and the outer body is fleshy and they do have a filter feeder fan on them.

 

[sho14u]

Oh, my pics are on my profile "gallery" because I don't know any other way of posting pictures. I really do appreciate all your help so far.

 

[NaH2O]

Here are a couple of the images:

 

[wrightme43]

Ok, I have seen them, or something very similar. I have no real clue what they are or how to get rid of them for sure. I took over on one very dirty tank with no skimmer and nitrates of over 100ppm which was as far as the test went. I do not know that the two were related. I changed many things about the tank and now they are gone. I added a skimmer, and 4 96watt pc, rearranged the live rock to a open area from a pile. Added powerheads, took away their flake food. Did three 33% water changes over 3 weeks, and stired and shiphoned the sand bed, added poly filters. Took away the super cheap carbon. Among other things. I really dont know what made them die off. It was only getting 5 gal. a month on a 75 and was using tap water. Now its rodi. This is just so you know what happened here. It does not say anything about your tank. If there are similaritys maybe check them out. Hope this helps in some way Steve

 

[sho14u]

Thanks Wrightme43. I will start with doing a good siphon of my substrate and rearanging my live rock and do a few partial water changes over the next couple of weeks. I added a second skimmer a week or so ago and it sure doesn't work very well yet. My cheepy in my sump still works better than the new SeaClone 150. The new one seems to be fairly common and it is a piggyback style. Have any ideas how to pump up the performance on it? Should I step up to a larger pump for it? Thanks for all your hard work on the damm barnacle thing. I hope they go away cuz they makin my tank look a little getto.

 

[sho14u]

Oh and NaH20, thank you very much for posting my pictures for me.

 

[Boomer]

Anybody got a close-up of these things, the are way to far away for a + ID