Where did all these feather dusters come from?

[RussC]

I guess you could call it an outbreak. But over the last two months I've noticed a ton of very small feather dusters sprout all over my tank. They are no larger than a penny, but they are everywhere. Why now? What are they eating? Coincidentally, I have a brown algae bloom on my substrate. This coincided with a 5% increase in my lighting. Thinking the two were related, I checked phosphates. Zero. And that's using the Hanna Checker ULR. My ALK is steady at 9.4 and CA at 420. That leaves feeding. But that comes back to my question, why now?

I feed 1.5 cubes of frozen food every other day and some flakes here and there. And my auto feeder feeds a small dose of pellets twice a day. The tank is one year old today.

This post is more about curiosity than it is to solve a problem. Its just interesting to know why.

 

[dtapke]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TANK! maybe its celebrating!

 

[RussC]

Yea, I kinda like it. Looks very natural.

 

[Sk8r]

Alas, they don't last too long. Sometimes its them, sometimes micro brittle stars, sometimes it's pineapple sponges, which are less welcome, but hey, that's life, all over!

 

[mcgyvr]

Yep... Pretty darn normal..
They are filter feeders pulling particles,etc... out of the water passing by them..
Detritus/food particles,etc...

Get one.. and more will come..
Do we need to have the birds/bees discussion Russ?

 

[jawaiianmon]

When I started my first tank I remember staring at the rock for hours and getting excited by all the feather dusters since they were the only things on the rock.


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