Tiny black worms

Hard to say really but click on the picture for a larger version. Take a close look at the worms that are near the surface of the sandbed. I think those are the black worms that stefanie is talking about. There are a lot of them for sure.

 

Yah I see them now! stefanie is that all black worms on the top of your sand?

 

siphoned worms

We siphoned out some of the worms and put them in another container against a white background so they are easy to see. The longest one in the photo (curled up) is about an inch long.

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa266/lola10lola/IMG_05701.jpg

 

I don't know what they are maybe somebody else can be of some help:-/

 

The worms are mostly up against the glass. They are starting to spread out, but from the picture it looks like there is a blanket of worms... there isn't. I would be REALLY REALLY worried if there was. They are just really small and thin, but everywhere.

Does anyone know about algae turf scrubbers? We have one, and took out the scrubber mat last night and let is float in the water. We have 0 algae in our tank, and thought that maybe if there was any on the mat that it could get into the tank. We did the 100% water change because 5 gallon changes stopped working, 20% water changes stopped working, 50% water changes stopped working... etc. Our fish are at the LFS on holiday right now while we try and figure out our water chemistry situation. It was wonderful for awhile and then BAM! I guess that is how it goes, right?

Basically, we had really high calcium... fixed that, and then really high phosphate... which is what we are currently trying to remedy. Now we find these worms and I don't know what is going on anymore. I almost feel like posting this ASAP, but since we've taken our fish to the store and put our corals into our other tank (which is fine), there really isn't a pressing need... I just want my tank to be healthy.

 

I am not sure what the worms are but since there is nothing in your tank and you are not pressed for time, You could try lowering your salinity to 1.010ppm and keep the aquarium in a hypo-salinity state for 3 to 4 weeks That should kill off the pests. Just a sugestion

Any body else?

 

Wow....I have never seen these worms nor an infestation as bad as you have. I hate to say it but I'm stumped

 

thanks for the help

You guys are great... thanks for the suggestions. My husband is going to the fish store today. I'll see what they say.

 

Looks like a major black round worm infestation They are in the Nematode family of worm . Many wrasses feed on these .. Usually a abundance of food and lack of predators will cause and population explosion like with many other worms . This is why I always keep a couple of wrasse's in a system..I just though to ask you if you run a Deep sand system or atleast a few inches of sand ? If so I'm 99% sure you just have a round wrom explosion in there.. Nothing to worry about ther are needed in a DSB..

 

black worms

We have about 3.5 inches of sand in our tank. My husband bought an additional bag today, so when we add that, maybe 3.75-4 inches of sand in our 75 gallon tank. I should say that when the light is on for just a few minutes, the worms retreat back into the sand. I'm sure they've been in there for awhile now, and I don't think they really hurt anything (fish or corals) but we just saw them today. Like I said earlier, we've been battling a phosphate problem for awhile now, and we don't have any algae. Do you know if these worms feed on algae? I would assume so, but we don't have any. We don't overfeed our fish; we take out what they don't eat.

I guess I'm curious if it is possible that they have eaten all the algae and are dying off due to starvation, and that is what is causing our phosphate levels to rise?