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View Full Version : All kinds of weird things in a little 10-gallon "pre-refugium"


Zeromus-X
01/27/2006, 11:09 PM
I purchased a 10g for use as a sump/refugium for my main 36g bowfront tank. Bought about fifteen pounds of live rock for it locally. Left the live rock in my main tank for about two weeks. During that time I used the water from my main tank to fill up the 10g, and dumped a few inches of live sand in there.

After two weeks passed, I checked the water params... looked good. Moved the live rock from my tank to that tank. Let it sit for about a week, changed some water, checked again. Looked good. At this point my fighting conch was causing too much trouble in my main tank, so I moved him to the 10g. Not enough space but he's only there 'till I can get rid of him in another week or so.

Now, things are getting weird. I'm looking at the tank and I notice a little feather duster sticking out of a white tube on one of the rocks. I've got those tubes all over the place in the main tank but have NEVER seen anything in one in the two years it's been running. So I look a little more, and they're all over the place! At least 30-40 of the things, all over the rocks, sprouting out. The bigger ones are probably almost 1/4" - 1/3" in diameter when fully open.

Then I notice something moving. Appears to be a tiny snail, no more than 1/4", but without a shell. I've got a few snails in the main tank but they're all huge... well over an inch with big ol' shells. I guess it's a snail anyway. Brownish in color, two antennae sticking out the front, moves slower than anything. It's stuck to the back glass and roaming around. A tiny white brittle star can be spotted on the rock underneath it, probably 1/5" or less in total length.

Then, while poking around, I notice what appears to be a sponge on the underside of a piece of rock. It's round, about an inch in diameter, and looks almost like what I can only describe as a ball of soft, fluffy fungus. This was *not* there when I put the rock in the main tank, as it was all inspected, and this is right out on the bottom/top of this piece, a nice flat piece too. However, I thought sponge died upon contact with air... there's no holes for it to have "hid" in...? It was exposed to air for at least 20-30 seconds while being moved from the main tank to the 10g.

The coraline algae on the rocks is getting more colorful. There's a bunch of orange that was never there. The only light on the tank is a stock NO fluorescent that came with my 36g. I think it's like eleven watts.

All this and I have yet to see a single pod in there with the lights out, looking with a flashlight.

This tank doesn't even have a filter on it! Just a tiny powerhead to keep the water moving around, and a heater. Meanwhile, my display tank has a nice filter, 130W PC lighting, plenty of LR (about 60-70lbs!), a nice moderately deep sand bed, yet I never find ANYTHING that I didn't buy and put in myself (though there are pods in there if you look hard at night!).

So confused! Wish I had a good enough camera to take a picture of some of the things I'm finding. It just seems like somehow I've created the perfect atmosphere for this stuff in a little 10g tank with nothing really going for it.

Wiggawam
01/28/2006, 02:15 AM
That tank has no predators. My refugium is like that, there is so much pod life that the water actually looks dirty, it is pretty cool to watch at night.

EmergencyDpt
01/28/2006, 02:55 AM
Aint life grand?

00nothing
01/28/2006, 07:06 AM
the signs of filter feeders doing so well could be considered an indicator towards poorer water quality

those little snails with no shell they are stomotella great little snails and if u are seeing one of them theres 10 more that u are not seeing

Pandora
01/28/2006, 08:31 AM
Like the others said, there's no predation; also, there's no heavy flow to disturb it... so when the cats are away, the mice will play...

Even if you checked over the rock, a lot of stuff stays shrunken in during the day, and you may not notice it until it is totally undisturbed. A whole hidden world in there!

Does your "shell-less snail" look anything like this? It's a scutus, a mollusc with a hidden shell, tucked away inside the slit on its back, you ordinarily can't see it at all. I had one and it was one of my favorite hitchhikers.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-12/totm/images/Scutus-00sm.jpg

Zeromus-X
01/28/2006, 12:02 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6607806#post6607806 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 00nothing
the signs of filter feeders doing so well could be considered an indicator towards poorer water quality

It wouldn't surprise me. Like I said, this is just a tank I dumped 10g of saltwater in from the main tank, a bag of LS, a heater, and a dozen pounds of LR. I haven't done anything else to it. Wasn't planning on using it for a few months, but wanted to get everything cycled. Now it's getting busy in there!

Good to hear that the snail is (probably) a good one. He's pretty big, still don't know where it came from... these rocks were in my main tank for a few weeks and I hadn't seen anything at all on them while they were in there. I've got two Puffers (a toby and a porc who needs a new home) who I figured would have completely destroyed any worms or snails on the rock itself while it was there!

Pandora
01/28/2006, 01:24 PM
Zeromus: I guess that's what you have then? They are nocturnal, and great algae eaters. I have been trying to look for another forever, but no one sells them, only hitchhikers. I don't see him most of the time at all, only comes out at night... your lack of lighting and no current probably allowed him to feel at home.