Fan worms?

[Breakthecycle2]

I cant get a good pic, but there are these little white balls all on the glass. They started on the back glass, but now my sump and front glass are being to get covered in them. They are hard to the touch. Is that normal?

 

[dacianb]

On the rock in front of blenny there are such things. I had them a lot, still have them few.
I forgot the right name of them, but are some kind of filter feeding worms and that's their shell. Having them in large number means that you have high nutrient level in the tank.
Lower the nutrients and will perish. Ok, those shells will be everywhere, but once you scrape them out will not come back.

 

[Breakthecycle2]

High nutrients is what causes them?

 

[dacianb]

High nutrients is what causes them?

Not caused by nutrients. High nutrients help them to spread and multiply in large numbers.

 

[Breakthecycle2]

Not caused by nutrients. High nutrients help them to spread and multiply in large numbers.

Interesting.

 

[cloak]

I cant get a good pic, but there are these little white balls all on the glass. They started on the back glass, but now my sump and front glass are being to get covered in them. They are hard to the touch. Is that normal?

Spirorbid worms most likely.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-05/rs/

 

[Breakthecycle2]

Spirorbid worms most likely.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-05/rs/

That is actually what they are. How do I get rid of them?

 

[dacianb]

Spirorbid worms most likely.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-05/rs/

Thanks for refreshing my memory [emoji1] [emoji1]

 

[Breakthecycle2]

So, how do you get rid of them?

 

[dacianb]

So, how do you get rid of them?

Back in november last year I had NO3 level at 40 (I tried hard to make a copperband to eat, so I flooded the tank with food). This was the period when those spiroids went crazy and took over the tank. I had to scrap the back glass every week because was fully covered with white dots. Same on rocks (but those I didn't cleaned) - even large snails I have became covered with them. Sump, pumps, even inside skimmer - I had them everywhere.
After poor copperband died (by starvation as didnt eat anything) I started to work hard to reduce the NO3 levels. Beginning of January I finally get NO3 to 0.00 and since then I keep it at 0.25-0.50 (for corals, to have some food :) ).
Weekly glass cleaning was needed every other week, now I have already 4 weeks since I didnt clean out the back window and didnt saw any white dot on it (it is a black window, so very easy to see them). Also on rocks I see coraline overgrow those shells, so I presume are dead.
As I read around about any type of hydroids, the best way to get rid of them is to starve them - no miracle solution in a bottle. I think mine entered the system on snails, but once tank went crazy they just took advantage of this.
I think that will always be some of them alive in my tank just waiting for next mistake, but as tank is more and more stable, they have less chances to beat me :p

I am not an advanced aquarist, nor a science geek - this is my experience and I dont claim is the only way, so others may have different opinions.