What the #@&% was in my filter?!

[often dignified]

I picked up some filter floss for my Penguin 125, so I powered off my filter and a ton of gunk sunk to the bottom of the strainer. The only way I can describe it was it looked like parts of a cotton ball, imagine when you pull a cotton ball apart - they were kinda dense looking and maybe a centimeter long.

I was disgusted and fished out as much as I could with a net, wrapped some floss around the cartridge and powered it back up. I washed out the intake tube, cartridge and filter itself as much as I could, and when I powered it on, a bunch more shot into the water. I netted all of what I could. The particles were big enough to be netted.

It didn't seem to be living like a hydra or anything, but it kinda resembled hydras. Any ideas? Harmful?

The only thing I have added to the tank within a month is silk plants, but I doubt it is anything from the plants? :confused:

Thanks.

[PumaWard]

Do they look like little, white worms?

[often dignified]

Not at all, they (it?) was/were all clumped up. I've seen the worms in my snail tank, and they look very similar, but the worms obviously move and wiggle through the water. When the filter was off, these clumps just hovered there and didn't move at all.

[valerie]

The only thign i have every seen in my tank that looks like a cotton ball is when food particles that haven't been eaten start to fungus up and look fuzzy.

[ScottoMacD]

Could it have possibly been the grey matter (soot, crud for lack of a better term) that tends to collect and line the tubes and hoses of filters?

I get a huge amount of crud flying out of my Eheim 2028 when I fire it up for the first time after I clean the filter and don't completely clean all the tubing and connectors as well.

Usually gets loosened because after you clean your filter the flow rate tends to dramtically increase, so all that crud tends to get jared loose from the flow.

If it is ...don't worry it is harmless and now that it was loosened will just get sucked into the filter.

[NJ Devils Fan]

Could be pieces of plants if you have live plants that started to decay after a long period of time.

[andruboz]

i find food grows that halo of mold after about 24 hours. then i have to pull my floating plants out and pick out the fuzz balls.

[often dignified]

looks like it could have been mold or fungus - but I do not over feed. I feed about every 3 days, and no food gets left over. Of course I have to soak some flakes first so a couple get to the bottom for my cories...

Thanks all