Tank overun with Bristleworms!!!

[kaddy522]

My tanks has alot of bristleworms are these good for the tank. Do i need to take them out. Should i keep some of them? Plus i seen them eating like the left over flakes on the ground. Do they have any special reason to be in tanks. Any suggestion on if i should keep them or get rid of them. Plus is there any fish that eat them.

 

[tizzo]

You want those bristles and you've already witnessed why. They eat the food that falls to the floor. They eat dead animals, they eat anything that would potentially cause an ammonia spike before it happens. They are good and you wanna keep them.

 

[kaddy522]

ok that is cool that they eat left over flakes. They dont hurt the fish do they. I have a ten gallon tank and i just have a lot of them around my tank.

 

[thomas712]

If you didn't figure it out thats a sign that your feeding to much. Might want to cut back some.
Thomas

 

[1journeyman]

Yep. As I understand it, an abundance of bristleworms=an abundance of nutrients.
Cut down on the feeding and they will die off.
I don't believe they will harm your tank, but some people have claimed that bristleworms will attack healthy corals once food becomes scarce. Never seen it happen myself, so I'd say cut back on feeding, vaccuum your gravel (if you have it) and watch to see what happens next.

 

[kaddy522]

Thanks alot guys for helping me 1journeyman and Tizzo
How do you vacuum the sand with out losing sand. Just curious

 

[thomas712]

Whoa you don't vaccum sand unless its the very top layer, and then only if you really need to, you just need to feed less, if you see piles of detritus then you can syphon that up to get it out of the system. The vaccuming suggestion is only if you have crushed coral.

 

[1journeyman]

Thanks for clearing that up thomas.
Yes, I should have placed more emphasis on GRAVEL. Sorry bout that.

 

[tizzo]

OK, I have read, read, and reread and can't figure out where you got that I suggested vacuuming the sand. Am I losing my mind?? DON'T ANSWER THAT, forget I asked!!
Like Thomas clarified, only CC get's vacuumed, if you wanna clean sand, you can lightly squirt it with a turkey baster to get the detritus up right before a water change.

 

[mudplayerx]

If you have the correct flow rate for a reef tank (20x to 25x) then flake food should never get the opportunity to rest on the botton of the tank.

 

[slammy16]

even with proper water flow i really dont thing that EVERY part of the tank will have constant water flow. That being said i do believe it to be possible for some flake food to find a little spot to rest on the floor. Like behind some larger rocks and such.