Near Disaster and suprise

[LovinDaReef]

Last night I come home to find my entire neiborhood pitch dark. The power went out in my house for at least 10 hours.

I panicked.

I stuck my hand in the water to test the temperature. It was still warm, but as the weather being in the mid 40's outside, I couldn't let it cool down. I got a empty 1 gallon water bottle, filled it with slightly warmer water, and floated it in the tank.

Then I had to make sure the water didn't get stagnant. So I got my algae scraper (credit card) and fanned the rocks every hour or so. I got very little sleep last night. Around 4 am, the power went back on and everything seemed fine.

So this morning I checked on everything to make sure they were fine. The shrimp didn't even notice, he was investigating my hand while I was doing everything. The rocks seems fine, the mushrooms seem fine as well.

However I did notice something, there are these white worm type things on my rock, but permanent type ones. I looked real close (20-19 vision helps) and there are feather dusters growing out of them, or some kind of anemone (the bad kind?). I will let them grow and take a picture when they are large enough.

[tmz]

Little tube worms. They are harmless and quite common filter feeders.

[LovinDaReef]

What would the filter feeders eat?

[taillonjohn]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11788580#post11788580 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by LovinDaReef
What would the filter feeders eat?

Filter feeders eat phytoplancton. it is constantly in the ocean water. it is a mix of single-celled algae, detritus, corals slough, bits of uneaten food, etc.... this is too simplistic of course, but my brain doens't hold scientific terms so well. this is the jist of it

if you turn off your skimmer, your water will have plenty of the stuff, and you'll see lots of little filter feeding worms and stuff. Turn your skimmer back on, and it takes all that stuff out of the water, and you'll see your little filter feeding population die down

[LovinDaReef]

Ah ok, I keep my skimmer on the day, and turn it off during the evening and night.

The skimmer is on but the filter feeders are still open. I see smaller tube worms on the rocks, maybe they will open in time.

[LovinDaReef]

I'm wondering what would of happened if I decided to go out and come home much later to find my tank really cold, would everything die?

[kau_cinta_ku]

how did you get warm water without power? just courious in case I have to do it.

[LovinDaReef]

From what I can tell, gas isn't powered by electricity, so the sink was still giving hot water. If it didn't, I was planning on turing on the stove with a cigerette lighter and cooking some warm water.

[kau_cinta_ku]

oh yeah gas works great in those situations. lol

[tmz]

You really don't wan't to encourage too much growth in those feather dusters,Water high in organics to support them is harmfull to other animals you may want to keep and will also encourage nuisance algae such as hair and bubble algae.The mini feather dusters can grow tho plague proportions and irrritae corals and jam up equipment.

[LovinDaReef]

What's a good way to trim them?

[sundancer]

I think the above posts answered your question: good skimming and low organics.

[tmz]

If they infest a zoanthid colony for example you wan't to get them out because they can irritate the polyps and cause them to stay closed. I have plucked them out with a tweezer one by one when they popped up where I didn't want them. If they are just hanging on the rock in overhangs and such leave them alone, they are good for they tank since they are consuming waste products