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.
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.
