What the heck is in my overflow ?

[Sunny]

I was looking in my overflow, yes .... I was bored .... and seen these.  They are all over my heater and back glass in there.  Is this aptasia ?   It's not in my tank, just the overflow. 

[Boonjob]

yessir, aiptasia they are... nasty critters! Though some would not mind having them where they are, as they do filter your water for excess food etc.

[Sunny]

What do I do with them?  When we switch everything over to the new tank, how do I get them off the heater?

[Boonjob]

What do I do with them?  When we switch everything over to the new tank, how do I get them off the heater?

If they are only in there.. I would leave em alone, messing with them can cause em to spread...

If your overflow can come out of the tank as one unit I would pull the whole thing out and drop em in a vat of diluted bleach(etc) and scrubb real well as it will allow you to get rid of them without them blowing their spores all over the tank... If you can not pull the whole overflow, and choose to get rid of the them, I would turn absolutely everything off  int he overflow to trap the water in there without it getting to the rest of you aqaurium, pull em off and suck out the water that was in the overflow to also get rid of the baby aiptasia spores, then clean it real well.

When your ready to switch tanks I would just pull your heater and soak it in bleach(etc) and clean it off real well, or allow it to sit out and dry for a few days to assure no living bits survive on the heater, as the whole aiptasia can regrow from a simple piece of aiptasia.

[Sunny]

I will leave them alone.  Hopefully the new tank will clear up soon.  It's been 4 weeks since we added the sand and water, it's still cloudy.  I've been using a sock to try and clear it up.  We added the water over the sand without laying anything on top of the sand ... UGH !!!  Than ran the pump and power heads.   Now it's just a big sand storm in there.  I shut the pump and power heads off, hoping that helps settle the sand faster.  I'll soak the heater in bleach before putting it in the new tank.
Thanks for your help ...

[Boonjob]

i would keep the powerheads on, if everything settles and you turn em on it wil more than likely just cloud up again until the flow settles the sand where it needs to be.

[slandis3]

I would wipe the glass off and do a water change to help get the free floating stuff out of the water.

[Sunny]

Thanks, I'll turn the powerheads back on.  I'm getting ready to clean the glass now.  And dig the carbon out of the overflow, forgot about that being in there.