let it sit 4 months lots of bristle worms friend or foe?

[shawna]

4 months ago I put in 50%cured l.r into a tank that had troubles. left some of the base rock. no fish some snails some hermit crabs as inhabitants- and just let it recycle lights on 12 hour a day. and just let it go. i have green algae bloom in the water (on top) and tons of little tiny white circle shaped worms. these i know are good but i also have tons of bristle worms all over and in the rocks on the glass etc. as well as spagetti worms and feather duster tiny worms(just a hand full of those) are the bristle worms really a big concern? i realize that there is contriversy re these little (and some several not so little guys) everything else looks good though I know a water change is in need now. should i be concerned about the bristle worms?

 

[larrynews]

they are friend...they eat food that hits the bottom and died animals.....

 

[shawna]

does it matter that there are tons of them? it is my third start again so i'm a little nervous

 

[larrynews]

i dont think so i have them everywhere but everything i have read on this forum says they are good....do a search on them there are lots of them...

 

[ophiura]

IMO, no. There are some bad worms. Yes. But few people have encountered them...and many of those are considered "bad" by assumption and size.
If you have a lot of nutrients in the tank (as evidenced by a bloom in featherdusters, and many other types of critters), you may get a lot of bristleworms. As those nutrients diminish with mature tanks, then the population may die off. In established tanks, an excess of worms may indicate excess stocking and feeding.
But worms don't "go bad" because nutrients die down. A scavenger doesn't morph into some fish eating monster because you cut down on the flake food

 

[shawna]

thanks! is there anything i ned to do since there are so many i need to move the live rock a bit to set up the tank scape (everything was set on the bottom i never found time to do the rock scape (80+ hour weeks at work) will they sting? i'm severely alergic to alot of stings (found out the hard way :thinking: thanks guys !

 

[larrynews]

they have brissle that will break off and it feels, my understanding is, like fiber glass...where glovesto be safe

 

[shawna]

thanks i'm going to try to start tod the rock scape once i get my l.s. from here thanks all :cheer:

 

[sleasia]

I have a 200 gallon fo tank which has been up and running now about 4 months. I am using an amiracle mr 300 with a panworld (big big ) pump and an asm4x protein skimmer. My return empties in all four corners of the tank and in addition to aid circulation I have two small powerheads and one larger powerhead inside the tank. I have a few pieces of live rock, some ornamental dead coral and also a few pieces of reef replica stuff. My substrate is crushed coral. I also have a chiller to maintain water temperature in summer months. I have a uv sterilizer (coralife turbo twist 36 watt) but I did not hook it up initially fearing it would retard the establishement of the biological filter. I slowly added fish and things were fine last month. for two or three months I have had ideal water conditions. not even any nitrates. sp grav 1.023 ph 8.3 temp 78 nitrite 0 nitrate 0. one by one recently, my fish kicked the bucket. The water quality had not changed and all I have been able to notice is an outbreak of 2-3mm tiny whitish wormy things which seem to like to hang out on the acrylic walls of the tank.l Being that (and this is confidential) I am in the 50 year old age group and at this age your eyes go bad, I was having a hard time identifying these wormy things as friend or foe. My neighborhood fish geek told me they were copepods over the phone without seeing them. so I looked it up on the internet and it didn't look like copepods. finally I bought a child's microscope set and looked. They definately look like small bristle worms. segmented with little hairy "legs" coming off each segment. so are they friend or foe. Will they grow to enormous man eating bristle worms or can I just leave them in there. When everyone in the tank began dying off, I ran my uv sterilizer finally and my remaining fish improved, but all I have left are three chromis who have lived through everything, and who actually were the first inhabitants of my tank. Do I treat my main tank with copper before getting ready to restock slowly ? what do I do? maybe nothing? and just change water and run the uv 24 hoursl. thank you

 

[carshark]

do not treat your main display with copper. and especially with a tank that size. you didnt mention ammonia, but assuming all of your other levels are good, i cant see a problem. also consider where you are buying your fish, how are you acclimating them, how is your feeding going. and what it sounds like to me they were pods, and they are friends. your local fish geek was right.. those are pods, and they do hang out on the glass/acrylic. you will see a bloom fairly early of those little guys, if you have a healthy system. then once they are eaten, or over time you will have another bloom but that takes a little longer. as far as your fish dying there are too many factors, and if your levels are good, and the fish you purchased are compatible, you will have to consider the source where you buy them, and how you acclimate them. i will state again, do not add copper to your display, it will contaminate your system for a long time. and it will take a lot of water changes to get it almost out, and it will still remain. therefore, adding copper will kill any invert you have or intend to have. your live rock couldnt thrive because of all the organisms that cant survive in copper...

 

[acrylic300]

My cleaner shrimp use to eat mine I witnessed it twice (very interesting). Now that I put fish in the tank he just sits on a rock waiting for a cleaner fix.

 

[sleasia]

Whoever you are, thanks carshark. The Ammonia is 0 by the way. I had paniced and called my local fish geek again and again he reassured me after explaining everything all over that these are more likely pods. he said bristle worms tend not to stick to the glass and are usually all over the sand. I still don't know why I lost fish previously, I suspect some type of disease because the uv seemed to improve the remaining fishe's health a great deal once I gave in and began running it. ( My tank is now 4 months old so I was still afraid of wiping out my biological filter with the uv and had not been running it) the remaining fish also are fine, so you would expect they would die too if the problem was these wormy things on the glass. I read up on copper a little more and everyone says no to copper. What I'm going to do now is set up a 20 gallon hospital tank and not buy any more fish until it is cycled and ready to go. I'll leave the three chromis in the tank and watch them and the water condition and in the mean time run the uv all the time and clean the tank a few times (every two weeks) before adding fish again. any other suggestions? thanks again

 

[ctgretzky9]

Make sure you are mixing your water change replacement water the correct way to stabilize pH and alkalinity. It should be mixed for 24 hrs at least. I am finding out more and more people's problems stem directly from improperly "aging" the water before replacing.

 

[sleasia]

for surfer dude... I had wondered also about the water changing. I use aqua safe to treat for chlorine and add to 20 gallons of tap water in large trash can buckets. I put in a power head to mix and throw in a bag of carbon for filtering. (I usually only use carbon to filter pre change water, and use purigen if I have to filter the main tank) Then usually later in the day I add the salt and let it sit for two days before adding water to the tank. I keep two large trash cans of water rotating to be sure I have enough prepared. One I usually keep the salinity low, like 1.016 for top off purposes and the other i keep closer to 1.o20 for water changes. I do not use r/o d/i filters. I do not have one. I was also wondering if maybe there is something in the tap water that just effects the fish, and is not filtered out by the system? Does this sound ok or should I be doing something different? thanks :notsure: