mystery star fish? and temp problem..

[billy61]

lately I have seen these little white star fish at night on the glass of my tank.. anybody know what or where these guys come from??
Also I recently purchased a PC light with 2x65 Blue Actinics and 2x65 FLourescent with the stand that puts it about 8 in. above the water. I thought that if I had the stand then it would not mess with the temp. but it heats it up about 4 degrees..
My question is where can i buy some little fans to put in between the water and the light?
TIA

 

[jjlittle]

1st the little white star fish could be no good from what my lfs tells me he stated tehy can eat some hard corals i have never seen any ill effect as of yet from them and I have lot of stonies & softies. As for the temp I had the same problem is your canopy seeled all the way around and do you have fans going. If its seeled meaning not cut out back you need to cut big cut outs in the back of the canopy and install fans if you dont have any. I made my canopy and didn't have the back cut out and had temp problems I then cut the back out as much as possible and the temp dropped 4 to 5 degrees.

 

[billy61]

where do i get the fans you are talking about? And I don't have a canopy. It's just te light over the open water.

 

[jjlittle]

you can get colling fans from swf or go to [edit] even your lfs. Once you see them online you go to your local Radio Shack and get them there cheeper in most cases. I think that is all you need is the fans to blow the hot air away from the tank.
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[bigarn]

The little white starfish are probably mini-brittles..... they're considered good to have.
They could also be Asternia starfish..... good also.

 

[ophiura]

The little white starfish are Asterina stars. A search using the button above will come up with lots of posts and pictures!
They are fine to have, even beneficial. The overwhelming majority feed on algal/bacterial films on the glass and rock. VERY VERY FEW are coral eaters...if yours were, they wouldn't be on the glass. The hype about them being bad is a load of, well, fill in the blank.
Most hobbyists have them, and very few have issues with them. Mostly you will see them on the glass at night.