White "Hair"?

[GreyhoundTrish]

Ok, I'm finally at a point where I have inverts, including five snails, five dwarf hermits and a small condylatic anemone. All of my new inhabitants are doing well. Water measures aren't "perfect" yet, but close, and I've been reassured by friends and LFS just fine for where I am right now.

Now I have an odd conundrum. There appear to be thousands of little white "hairs" swirling around in the tank. Not floating on top, but throughout the whole tank. They're obviously not getting snagged by the filter.

I'm in a Biocube 8, with Marshall Island live rock. The "hair" has only shown up in the last couple of days. I have three greyhounds, but as was said elsewhere, they're lower than the tank, and the tank does have a lid. I'd also expect real hair to float at the top only.

Thoughts? I'm totally confused. :worried:

 

[SurfnFish]

Are they really short pieces of "hair"? Like an 1/8 of an inch? Are they sticking to your glass? Because, that's what I have going on, and I'm wondering what it is also.

 

[GreyhoundTrish]

It's sure what it looks like. Am I losing my mind? They're not really sticking to the glass though.

 

[BrandonS]

I got those as well. It turned into a giant algae infestation. It looked almost like roots of plants.

 

[GreyhoundTrish]

Uh..serious??:hmm4: And how does one get rid of it?

 

[SurfnFish]

I was able to net most of mine out, but there are a few left. They seem to stick to the glass in mine though. I had to clean them off with my magnet cleaner, and scoop them out.

 

[erbio]

neat, white is better than green. Got a pic?

 

[BrandonS]

It might not be algae... just saying I just had an outbreak that looked like "roots" on the glass and it was all over my tank as well.

 

[GreyhoundTrish]

Mines all floating, but I can see what I can do with the brine larvae net. *shrug* Tried to photograph, since it's moving is just looks blurry.

 

[GreyhoundTrish]

Nada. It's like almost lint. No sense I can "get" any of it, and I don't see any stuck to anything. Why isn't it getting sucked into the filter? Grr.

 

[BrandonS]

oh it's floating... nothing like mine then. might be something reproducing or microbubbles. If your tank is new there might be some air in one of your pumps that is slowly getting chopped up.

 

[GreyhoundTrish]

And look hair like? Ok. I feel like I'm in the twilite zone. Anyone else hear eerie music?

 

[GreyhoundTrish]

DH just looked, and said, no to micro-bubbles. It's filaments of some sort.

 

[GreyhoundTrish]

Could this have come home with the snails, hermits, or anemone Friday?

 

[SurfnFish]

I don't know. That's wierd. I was able to get rid of almost all of mine with the net. My filter and skimmer wouldn't pick it up either.

 

[GreyhoundTrish]

*sigh* Not the way I wanted my reef to start. Hey, I grew up in Wisconsin and love snow, but not in my tank.

 

[SurfnFish]

If your water params are close to perfect, then I really wouldn't worry too much about it. Just keep an eye on it, and try to net it out when you can. Good luck!

 

[GreyhoundTrish]

Ok. The snails are now attacking the glass and done playing king of the snail hill, so maybe between them and the hermits they'll get rid of said bizarro stuff.