Bristle Worm

[fishyfishyfish]

I am new to this Forum, but I have found it very informative. I have an Eclipse Hex 5 gal setup for about 6 months. With about 2 lbs of live rock, pepperment shrimp, clown fish, firefox goby, and assortated hermit crab and snails.
I have been getting a lot of brownish-green algee, and a very bright green algee. I believe this is because I have been using tap water for water changes. I would also like to stimulate the growth of purple algee. My question is how do I do that?
Also I have a bristle worm crawling around the bottom of my tank. Is this guy something that I should be concerned with? I believed it ate a few feather dusters I had growing in the tank. However, I haven't seen it in at least a month.

 

[patandlace]

You should definately start using RO water. For coraline algae to grow it needs to be introduced to the tank then keep your calcium around 400-450.
Bristle worms are very beneficial and should not harm anything that is healthy.

 

[garnet13aj]

You may want to ask in the nano forum, but most people say you should have atleast a 20g in order to have fish in your set up.
I have a ton of bristle worms in my tank. They help a lot w/eating leftover food in the bottom of my tank, so if you have one I'd leave it in there.

 

[fishyfishyfish]

ok, how do i introduce it. Do i have to get a rock with it already on it. I was told at the local supply store to just add calcium drops to the water

 

[julie853]

I used tap water for a while and had a horrable problem with algae when I switched to R/O water the algae problem went away.