Bugs, weird black grime et al.

[christophert]

So I came back home after spending a week away for Easter - a friend fed the fish while I was gone - and happily everything was still alive (phew!)....BUT I started seeing this strange sooty black grime had settled on some of my rock and parts of the sand bed. Any ideas as to what this is? As I was doing a water change a lot of it got stirred up and made my anemone REALLY mad...he has since reinflated and returned to normal.
https://flic.kr/p/s7ekbh" alt="" />

Also I discovered several of these crawling around the tank at night....any ideas???

[IMG]https://flic.kr/p/rayQyi" alt="" />

Lastly, a few pics of some happy denizens of my tank...
[IMG]https://www.flickr.com/gp/131762982@N03/f4R65o" alt="" />
[IMG]https://www.flickr.com/gp/131762982@N03/jT6Qm9" alt="" />
[IMG]https://flic.kr/p/rPVaxD" alt="" />

 

[christophert]

Oops....
Grime:

alt="" />

alt="" />

Bugs:

alt="" />

Et al.

alt="" />

alt="" />

alt="" />

 

[ghbrewer]

I cannot see your pics, but do you run carbon? It can break down if it is tumbling around too much, especially if mixing GFO with it.

 

[ringo®]

The "bugs" are amphipods. Basically potato chips of the reef
Can't really make out what the grime is. Looks like algae to me.

 

[declanisadog]

ghbrewer;1027361 wrote: I cannot see your pics, but do you run carbon? It can break down if it is tumbling around too much, especially if mixing GFO with it.

Definite possibility.

Ringo®;1027403 wrote: The "bugs" are amphipods. Basically potato chips of the reef
Can't really make out what the grime is. Looks like algae to me.

That is a pretty awesome analogy.

 

[shrimpy brains]

Looks like a ton of algae growth to me! I would tend to think that whoever fed your tank, overfed it! I would scale back on the feedings for a couple of weeks and do extra water changes till things got back to normal.

And as stated above, the bugs are amphipods. Good a cleaning up leftover food and detritous and an awesome food source for your fish! Good job catching one for the picture!

 

[jennm]

The black stuff looks like carbon. Amphipods are good.

How do you run your carbon?

 

[camellia]

Shrimpy Brains;1027443 wrote: Looks like a ton of algae growth to me! I would tend to think that whoever fed your tank, overfed it! I would scale back on the feedings for a couple of weeks and do extra water changes till things got back to normal.

And as stated above, the bugs are amphipods. Good a cleaning up leftover food and detritous and an awesome food source for your fish! Good job catching one for the picture!

Dang those are hard to catch!