Floaties: gelatin, cold crash, swirl carboy?

I found a lot of threads about floaties at the surface, but I have a very distinct layer of suspended bits of trub or protein globules (or something) exactly halfway between the surface and the bottom of my carboy.

This is a strong IPA (and my first brew) that was in primary for about a week and secondary for two weeks, and these guys haven't fallen at all in days. Last hydro was 1.017. I'm pretty sure I screwed up my OG reading, but taking into account that mistake and a few other big ones that I'm too embarrassed to admit, I believe I'm at about 9% ABV. Yikes! I did use Irish moss.

What would you do? Would gelatin help? I've read posts about gently swirling the carboy to get stuff to fall out, but I'm scared that will just kick it up even more. If I can get space in a fridge I'll cold crash and cross my fingers, but right now I can't.

If you can post a picture, it would help a great deal.

Gently swirling it will be Ok, just let it sit in secondary a couple more days to settle. That might break the suspension.

Also, post the recipe - 9% is a large grain bill especially with a 1017 FG. It'll be useful to see it.

I seem to have lost the paper I had with the recipe and can't remember of the top of my head, but I googled the name of the beer (I-5 IPA) and this looked right:

partial mash
2 lbs. 2-row pale malt
1/2 lbs. victory malt
1/4 lbs. barley flakes
6 lbs. DME

1 oz. cascade hops - 60 min
1 oz. cascade hops - 30 min
1/2 oz. Willamette - 15 min
1/2 oz. Willamette - 0 min

original specific gravity: 1.057
final specific gravity: 1.016

I also threw in about 1/2 cup honey at 30 min, cause I'm crazy like that

Here's what I was too embarrassed to admit: I forgot to mark the 5 gallon point in my fermenter, and ended up with probably only 3.5 gallons of wort, but didn't know since it's my first batch. After realizing this I added some boiled and cooled water when I transferred to secondary.

Here's a picture 1 day after gently swirling. The layer of crap was more distinctly aligned beforehand.

wow trippy. i wouldn't be to concerned looks like some of your irish moss is stuck to the sides of your carboy.

It looks like some weird asteroid belt in the middle of your beer! I can only guess that the water you added didn't blend well with the beer, some fermentation leftovers kicked off a secondary fermentation somewhere around the barrier between your beer and the water. Not sure, just a guess.

The swirl may have been enough to break it up. Just give it a few days, a few more gentle swirls, and I bet it falls.