Little whilte spirals??!?!

L

lokstag

Registered Member
Apr 16, 2006
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Hey guys, I'm brand new here. Just got my saltwater tank up and running. Converted my 55 from a freshwater tank. I let it cycle for a month with a 5-7 pounds of live rock (don't remember how much) and several hermit crabs. Once my nitrate cycle balanced out I have added a snowflake eel. The eel is doing great and ate frozen shrimp on the second day and I'm currently feeding him every other day. He's (or she's i suppose) about a foot long. I don't think I have a delimna, for starters. My nitrate, nitrite and amonia lvls haven't budged since putting him in (approx 25, 0 and 0 respectively) but I have these white disk/spiral things growing on the back of the tank, i count 4. Also many tiny little worms that I would consider planaria of some type in a freshwater tank. Normally I would cut back on the amount of food going into the system, but with 8 crabs (amoutn left) and one eel I feel the feedings are adequate. I feed the eel a slice of cocktail shrimp about the size of 3 or 4 pennies lined up every other day. I feed the crabs 4 or 5 pleco discs a day, which they seem to gobble up, when they're not eating discs, they're grazing on the live rock. I have a few starfish in the system. I can't ID them, i didn't buy them. One looks like a chocolate chip? and the other is black and has LONG arms. They're both no bigger than a penny, must have hitchhiked on the live rock. I haven't seem them in a while, perhaps they died? I have several featherduster tube worms, only one of signicant size (approx. a quarter). The rest are just large enough to see if you're looking. I also have a sea slug, or maybe a snail. It's very small and I haven't seen much of it. There are tons of tiny shrimp like animals that are burrowing in my live rock and I have 2 or 3 different kinds of algea on the rocks. To sum up such a huge and lengthy post, what are the spiral white things that do not move growing on my glass and are the tiny worm like things on the glass of the tank resembling planaria a problem, and if so, how do I get rid of them?
As an aside, I had the water tested at a fish store I consider to be reputable and they said my salinity, alk? and calcium were good. This was 3 weeks ago when the tank was cycling, i don't remember the numbers. My salinity is hard to measure, but it's in the middle of the green tab on my hydrometer, I 'm guessing 1.012? Hope this is enough info to diagnose my possible problem. OH! I have a powerhead and a rena xp3 for filtration and am building a skimmer from DIY plans on the internet to save money. No live sand was used, I sterilized the gravel I had in the tank and reused it. all the animals appear to be quite well. My eel is a blast, hasn't tried to escape the tank yet that I know of. I heard they try that. He says in his rock home most of the day and is not shy at all. I think Im' going to try hand feeding him. Good idea? The crabs that died did so because there were no shells for them to grow out of. I have since remedied the situation. I thought I bought some crabs and some shells. Turns out I got charged for some crabs and got a few extras hiding away in the shells, lucky me. I had an oscar for a year which was a blast, but I can't get a bigger tank at the time and decided he was too big for his tank so I sold him to a pet store that has a nice pond.
 
um first off, if you don't really know what your salinity is, it's time to go back to freshwater, if your salinity (Specific gravity, that's the measurement your using) is really 1.012 i would imagine that those tiny things are the grim reaper coming to kill all your fish. Saltwater should be 1.023 to 1.026 more like 1.025 to 1.026 SG. The white things could be some type of pod (very good thing)

another thing, you should have about 1 pound live rock PER gallon of water, it's going to be your main biological filter. If you have all that stuff already out of the liverock then looks like you found some nice liverock. You really should have at least 50# of the stuff though.

Protein skimmer is Very, very important in a saltwater tank, it removes the proteins before the have a chance to break down.

if i'm not mistaken, eels like an aragonite bedding to burr down in, I don't think that the "colored gravel" is a real good idea with saltwater.

without knowing exactly what numbers you have for your test it hard to make any guesses on your water quality, the phrase "all perimeters are fine" drives me nuts and is widely used on here. so your calcium is 350 and ok or is 450 and ok? your ammonia is .5ppm and ok or 0ppm and ok, see a pattern here? Saltwater tanks really need to be monitored even more closely than FW tanks. Also calcium really isn't that important in a FOWLR setup, more on the lines for corals.

For test kits (not strips, don't waste your time) get Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, GH/KH, PH (highside saltwater),phosphate (high phosphate and your tank will be a big nasty algae tank), and if i were you, i would get some Live Sand and redo the bottom of the tank. Down the road look into a refractometer which is so much more accurate compared to a hydrometer (40 bucks on www.drsfostersmith.com )
 
While i'm ranting along, RO/DI water would be a good choice too.

with freshwater, evaporation happens, no big deal, add some more water and your done.

with Saltwater, evaporation happens, salt doesn't evaporate, only water, your salinity raises with every drop of water that evaporates, if your not adding water (top offs) back to the tank quite frequently, your salinity could change pretty drastic and hurt / kill your inhabitants.

lots more to saltwater than freshwater, money being one of the biggest ones :)

i'm not trying to sound like a jerk or anything, just pointing out some things to you, since your on here, you obviously want to learn and that's a good thing. Read, read, read, and when your done, read some more. There is a wealth worth of knowledge on here and ignorance is no longer an excuse with the days of internet at our fingertips. Good luck.
 
i have those white little spiral things, they are a type of tubeworm and are good for your system.
 
Welcome to AC! I hope you're still around after that somewhat coarse introduction.

If I read your post right, you have tested the NH3, NO2 and NO3, and the numbers look fine. I would definitely encourage getting a hydrometer, or even better, a refractometer, to keep an eye on your salinity/specific gravity. With evaporation, things can change fairly quickly. Alkalinity is also a very good measure of tank health, and I would suggest getting a kit for that as well.

I'm with gman that the spirals are probably tubeworms. You might take a look at the hitchhiker thread in the newbie forum to see if you can recognize some of the other animals that have made their way into your tank.
 
Hey thanks for the replies guys, I appreciate the information. As I understood the directions on the hydrometer I bought keeping the water parameters within the green band was considered optimum water salinity. With the maniscus (not sure I spelled that right) it's almost impossible to judge the exact salinity. I thought 1.012 was correct but apparently I was wrong, I'll have to go inspect the gauge. Either way thanks for the replies, I'll have to buy the other different test kits to keep up with alk and calcium. I do remember specifically stating what my nitrate, nitrite and amonia levels were and I appreciate the constructive feedback on those. I read that moral eels do not require any special substrate, as long as you have bacteria growing on it, it works fine. I do plan on changing it out but for now it's going to have to stay. He seems to be happy and has dug out a little nest for himself underneith one of the rocks that he swims through. Thats good news about the spiral things on my glass. If I look closely enough I can imagine that there are hairs coming out of one end. I think they're just too small to tell what they are to the untrained eye. Since everybodies eating, swimming and acting in a manner consistent with what I have read they will act, I'm going to assume that my water parameters are within acceptable levels as coincides with your responses. As soon as I am able I'll get a test kit or have the local fish store test it for me and give me hard numbers. Thanks for the info guys. I don't mind the course introduction, course maybe pufferpoison should check their own salinity. Have a glass of fresh water, pop an aspirin and call us in the morning?
 
And Yeah, i'll get more live rock but since the bio load on the tank isn't hellatious right now (at least compared to an oscar) i figured I could ramp up the live rock a pound or two at a time to keep things acclimated.
 
sorry not trying to be an A$$hole or nothing and yes i'm battling the flu and all. Just trying to get a point across. So many ppl come on forums with things like:

hey i've got 20lbs live rock curing in a tub for two weeks, is it ok to add salt now?

or the famous one i read on here or reefcentral:

A lady went into petstore, assuming she had a SW tank in the first place? she wanted one of those nemo fish a dori fish and the wiggly thing (anenome), left the store with like 5 or 6 creatures, not even knowing what they were.

It's just that ppl can save these pets from suffering and death if they would just read first, I spent 3 months + reading before my tank even came in, and finally after having everything set up, waited another 3 weeks for the liverock to cure. So after 4 months i was ready to add 1 fish LOL. Most ppl aren't so patient. I swear i see like 6 + damsels taken back to the LFS every week. Most ppl just impulse buy and it's usually the fish that pay the price.
 
Welcome, Lokstag. 1.022 is the middle of the green zone on my Instant Ocean Hydrometer...that's probably what you remember... It's easy to read, maybe you should change yours.

I agree, try to get more LR, 1 lb. per gallon or more. It's a cool hobby. I've broken more rules than I can shake a stick at and my tank does well. Lucky, I guess. Don't get put-off by strong reactions here...these guys love fish and tend to be passionate in their replies, but they all mean well. Good luck!
 
Once again I appreciate the replies. I'm not turned off by any means. Sometimes it's difficult to realize newbies are exactly that, newbies. The context has to be taken into consideration when answering a question from anyone. How much knowledge do they have, how much do they want to learn? What are they really trying to ask me? I've been guilty of coming down on innocent ignorance too hard myself. I wasn't trying to start a fight or flame anyone. So thanks for your patience and understanding with me. More live rock is coming.
 
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