help identifying objects

[ecomdesign]

I got my tank setup on Thursday and a few things I see have got me a little paranoid. Can you please help me figure out what these are and if the are harmful. I'm a newbie and I've tried to research online, but I've come up with all kinds of possibilities, but nothing concrete. So I've decided to just ask the pros!

The first pic shows thousands of white particiles floating in the water. They seem to be coming from the water being pumped out of the sump. The second shows these little white cocoon like objects. Some are just plain white, while others have a honeycomb like faint-black patteren on them.

 

[SquidHC]

The white particles could quite possibly be air bubbles? This is most commonly caused by ether the water level being too low in the return pump area, or the skimmer pumping micro bubbles into the sump and them getting sucked up by the return pump.

The critters on your rock are what we refer to as "hitchhikers". If your LR is good, there should be all sorts of small inverts living on it. They all have special purposes and are just part of having a healthy ecosystem. They will eat poo, algea, and other crap in your tank.

Also, your tank needs to cycle for up to a month before you put ANY animals in it. (your sig says star fish, banded shrimp, shrooms.) Please do some reading about tank cycling before you do anything more to your tank. If it hasnt cycled, you should take what you have back to the LFS and have them babsit them untill your tank is ready.

 

[ChrisKirkland]

The second pic looks like sponges from the way you describe them. Too hard to tell from pics. The yellow in the second pic looks like it is a sponge too. The white particles in the first pic is probably some detrius that is coming from the sump. (probable because of to much flow through the sump. How long has the tank been up and running? What are you water parameters?

 

[ecomdesign]

I have had the tank setup for 2 days. I bought the whole setup second hand and the previous owner who had it running for 2 years. The mushrooms, starfish and shrimp came with it. I dont plan on adding anything until I'm more comfortable with everything. As for now I'm very excited/paranoid!!!

 

[ecomdesign]

thanks so much for the help! I closed the valve on the return pump to slow the flow rate down and the white particles are gone within minutes! I also turned the valve down over the refugium so its more of a trickle. I should post a video on youtube and post a link so u can tell me what you think.