what lives in your overflow box ? I was amazed too see just how many little feather dusters , copepods., limpets and other things live in there ..I’ve tried too take some photos with my phone ... so let’s see what everyone’s got living in there .. post a pic of your overflow life for me !!!
There's not much alive in my overflow box since I cleaned it out a couple of weeks ago to rescue a wayward Anthia. However, when I first looked in the overflow, aside of 2" of buildup in the bottom of each box over the last two years, I was surprised to see large colonies of feather duster worms. These were not the ones you buy at the store nor were they the micro versions that live on live rock. They were about 4" long, but only about 1/8" in diameter. Very interesting. I'm sure there are also all other kinds of things in the overflows, but I painted my back glass so I can't see into my boxes like you can while the tank is running. Finally, I made some plastic covers for my boxes to make sure no fish get back there again, but I think about once or twice a year I will start vacuuming out these boxes during water changes. The smell of sulfides was strong!
Had only a couple aptaisia in my previous tank that were taken care of by some peppermint shrimp. Tank center support cracked and I was looking inside the overflow as I was putting a pipe clamp on to hold the tank temporarily and found this guy. he was the largest one I have ever seen