What is in my Overflow Box?

[Patrick Cox]

I turned off my my main pump last night to feed my corals and after turning it back on I noticed that it took a while for my siphon to restart and I had a lot of water flowing through the emergency overflow so I opened the lid in my overflow box and below is what I found.

I reached in to touch the build up and it feels more like calcification than algae. Any ideas what this is? And I guess I need to remove the box and clean it? (That will be a PITA.) My tank has been running for 2 - 2 1/2 years and I have not done anything with this box or the plumbing really.

BTW, eventually the syphon restarted.

Thanks for your comments.

[Bill_Moorman]

I don’t know what it is but I would definitely be cleaning that out.


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[Bill_Moorman]

Originally Posted by Bill_Moorman

I don’t know what it is but I would definitely be cleaning that out.


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Is the film just on the surface?


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[Patrick Cox]

Originally Posted by Bill_Moorman

Is the film just on the surface?


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It seems to be accumulating on all surfaces. So the inside of the box and the outside of the pipes. At some point I assume they will meet. I am not sure about the inside of the pipes.

I did not glue my pipes so I may be able to remove them. I have not tried anything like that yet. I could scrape the insides but the debris would just build up on the bottom of the box so I think I will need to either remove the pipes if I can or remove the box. My concern on that is that if some connection of the box breaks I would have a problem because it would take me several days to get a new box. So not sure what to do.

I also noticed that I have this same buildup in the skimmer compartment of my sump. But not the last chamber.

Thanks

[Patrick Cox]

Well, I decided just to get in there and clean it. Aside from one small mishap, it's all taken care of. It was a hard thick covering over everything. I had to scrape it off with a glass scraper. I guess it was just some sort of carbonate build up. At some point i will need to do the same with my sump. Not looking forward to that either.

[homer1475]

hard to tell from the pics, but almost looks to be hydroids.

[Bill_Moorman]

So the whole thing was...hard?


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[Patrick Cox]

Originally Posted by Bill_Moorman

So the whole thing was...hard?


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Yes. It was all crusty but it broke up without too much trouble. It was brown with a fairly solid base and then with thin spikes. I believe I have the same thing in the skimmer compartment of my sump. Lower flow areas. It was not inside the pipe where the flow is. Since I don’t have it in my tank it must not like light.

[Bill_Moorman]

Hmm that’s totally odd. I wish we knew what it was, but I’m glad you got it out!


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[ghostman]

My guess would be small tube worms that dominated my sump and equipment. That's a ton of them though!!!!

[slief]

Definitely looked like tube worms. I would have left them. They are good filter feeders and will remove some nutrients and waste that goes through the overflow. Their populations are typically limited by the amount of waste in the tank and since the overflow is a place most waste travels, it’s no surprise they are in there. As long as they weren’t blocking the drain pipes, they weren’t doing any harm and may even have had their benefits. The last picture however looks like there is some algae in there? Maybe that’s the reflection. If your overflow isn’t covered, I would suggest some black acrylic over it to block out any light.

[jporter]

Some of them look like Vermatid snails. I pulled some nasty sized ones out of my overflow when I switched tanks a few years ago. JP