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In addition to the newly found sponge we are now seeing a couple of tiny white starfish on my back wall and overflow... good or bad? Is this a sign my tank is doing okay water wise? Thx
Sounds like you have Asterina starfish. There is a love/hate feeling about Asterina. Some folks don't have a problem with them....others want them out. Note that a very small percentage are known to eat certain corals. The general belief is that white is safe....colored Asterina could be coral eaters. Again, this is an extremely small percentage of a certain variety of Asterina that consume corals. Otherwise they eat algae and are a benefit to the tank. FYI, I've had Asterina for over eight years without issue
I would not use the presence of Asterina as a indication of water quality. It certainly is a good sign that they are alive, but you really can't take the place of doing the proper testing for water quality using your test kits.
Lol... no I am still at the point of testing every 3 weeks...with w/c 20% weekly... just found it weird that this sponge and now this starfish started popping up...thought something might be off that I wasn't testing for.... but thanks...
He was doing fine...this was when I first got him but a week or so later all heads were full extended like the front two in this video... but once the salt dipped he hasn't come fully out again but it's barely been a week. I'm hoping he will! https://youtu.be/XQ5QnJuSqwg
Knock on wood (my head), so far so good... as a side note... changed the flow to very slow on my refuge and my chaeto exploded... in about two weeks I got a small soccer ball sized clump that I just threw away... my question is I put a bunch of copipods and amphipods in there... I think you can see them in the video... am I wasting a bunch of them when I throw out the chaeto?