Worms?

So all of the sudden I've had these red/purple worm looking things show up in my frag tank - they are coiled up and have very hard shells, seem to be all over the place. I've attached a pretty bad photo of one I took out (best I could do at the moment). Can anyone identify what they are and if they are serious?

 

Vermitid snails, they can irritate corals with their feeding webs.

 

What's the best way to deal with them?

 

Pull the rocks out and the use superglue to seal the tube. Or just break them off with a screwdriver or hammer. It does not take a large amount of force.

 

It just seems like they populated really quickly, last week I didn't notice any and now there are 40 or 50 - if I break them all up, will they continue to grow?

 

They show up as a result of excessive organic particulates in your system (which is what they catch in their "nets". Remove the food, and they will die back to a manageable level.

Sounds like you may be feeding your tank too heavily.

 

I've been increasing feeding to increase nutrient load in the tank - my sps are showing better color and growth as a result with a slightly lower Alk level (8-9 vs 10-11)

If I manually remove them/break them up, will the continue to repopulate?

 

I think these lil' fellas' are rather beneficial. The only thing that they irritates were my Palythoas, which in turn swallowed a large amount of their web. The web catches excess food, and helps achieve that "Crystal clear" water look.