wormy live rock help! help!

[bab]

I have recently started a new 60g tank and 2 weeks later added live rock, the problem you see all started with the rock.. I adopted a blue damsel from an unsucessful friend and was living in the empty tank with some coral sand. A week later i added some large pieces of lr, about 14 kilos(not sure what that is in Ibs) which looked healthy, little bit smelly but i assumed that would go away after a few days. 3 days later the damsel was found dead. 4 days later rock started to look white, like powder sprinkled all over it, 5 days later wormy things appeared on the coral sand which move, some are like thread, all different lenghts while some are short about 2cm and almost as fat as a pencil. there are also little star things that are very thin and thread like. the water has also become more smelly and very cloudy, which it was not before..
this is my first tank with lr, should i get rid of the threads, which i doubt i could get all of it out. ive heard things about aspistas so im worried please any help would be fantastic

 

[iechy]

The damsel dying was probably due to die off from the LR. In the future if you have anythign live in your tank don't add any LR that smells bad. If it smells bad it is not done curing. THe white buildup was probably die off as well. The worms are most likely harmless spaghetti worms.
I wouldn't add anything else until the nitrites and ammonia show as zero and the nitrates are under control. When this is the case I would expect the smell to be gone and the water clearer. HTH

 

[beth]

Iechy is right. The LR exp die-off resulting in ammonia spike in your tank---resulting in the death of the damsel.
It is normal for die-off to occur with new LR, however, you must also have a tank system that will support the coraline needs of LR [adequate intense lighting and calcium]. The worms...well, lucky you. These are an essential componet of you tank fauna. Be sure to feed them, or they will die too.
I'd suggest that you pick up a good hobby book so that you can learn as much as you can on the hobby before adding any more fish...and, of course, stay turned in to Saltwaterfish.com.