Calcareous growth everywhere

[acabgd]

Hi,
Despite not being a new reefer this seems to confirm there is still a lot to learn - I can't identify this growth which is all over the place, but mostly in shaded/low light areas. It's tiny and nothing comes out of it, seems to be some calcareous growth but I can't identify it.

It's on the bottom of LR, in the sump, on probes... It's sharp because it's very thin but not too strong - you can break it off easily. I have no idea what it is but would like to know.

Thanks!

 

[Reefing102]

Those appear to be vermetid snails. They have feeder webs that can bother coral if they get too bad. Most people reccomend gluing over them however with an infestation that bad, not sure what the best course of action may be

 

[taricha]

hydroids
[Edit: nope. Hard calcified tubes eliminates hydroids regardless of what my eyeballs tried to tell me. Vermetids as said already. ]

 

[Sean Clark]

Scarry.

 

[N.Sreefer]

Have you seen stringy webs coming out of any of them? If not they may be micro feather dusters they absolutely covered my old tank.

 

[CayeCaulker]

I had a buddy give me a piece of coral years ago and as a result my entire tank was infested with them. They competed with my coral for calcium and it was a nightmare. They were all over. Probes, sump walls , anywhere that was not regularly scraped or cleaned they grew. Reminds me of zebra mussels in local lakes and ponds. They just take over.

I am setting up a new system and am so afraid of unwanted critters and worms/ snails etc. I will quarantine everything. I don't even want to use live rock.

 

[Sean Clark]

Here is an example.
Vermited snail feeding

 

[Labridaedicted]

The size and color of the shell are wrong for vermetids (which are sessile snails and tend to have large and brown hued shells[tubes]).

More likely a type of tube worm from the Spirorbis genus or similar. I think most folks get them to some degree in dark areas of their tank (I know I do). They're harmless filter feeders. They'll foul some equipment. But that's why we have to clean our probes and such periodically.

 

[acabgd]

Not vermetids, that I can confirm. Never had them but of course saw friends with vermetids. Here also absolutely no webs. There seems to be nothing in these tiny tubes, nothing ever comes out, at least not that I've seen, night or day. But definitely not vermetids.
That's why I came here for help, never seen anything like it. Ca consumption did go through the roof, Ca went down to like 260 until I started dosing more, I increased dosing by about 1/3 to what it was.

 

[Borat]

100% vermetids.. They often come out at night - during the day not many of them would cast their web (depending on whether there are predators around, my CBB pecks them)..

 

[Borat]

I have them literally everywhere - not causing major issues but may irritate zoas...

 

[acabgd]

Ok, vermetids then - but I've never seen them cast any web. I have more of them in the sump than in the display.

 

[Sean Clark]

Shared album from Sean 📸

Tap to view!

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[acabgd]

Shared album from Sean 📸

Tap to view!

photos.app.goo.gl

No, never the webs. I've never seen them and I've looked at night as well, expecting this 100% to be vermetids. But never seen a web.

 

[Sean Clark]

No, never the webs. I've never seen them and I've looked at night as well, expecting this 100% to be vermetids. But never seen a web.

Interesting. I think they are cool but I wouldn't want an invasion.

 

[CayeCaulker]

I am in the process of setting up a new system and I am going to go to extreme lengths to control everything that goes in. I am even going to go as far as to dissect live rock pieces to seed the system with stuff I want. I only want small frags on plugs and I will dip every one and make it live in the quarantine cube first. My tank will probably look like crap for a few years but that's ok.

haha maybe I will never have a bristle worm!