Guest alex wlazlak October 29, 2005 Share October 29, 2005 i was looking in the tank at around 11 last night and noticed i had quite a few of them. are they bad? they were burried in the sand against the glass and arond 1" from the top of the sand. is there a kind of shrimp that will take care of them because im interested in getting a shrimp and that will be a great reason.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest clownfish4 October 29, 2005 Share October 29, 2005 I don't know of any shrimp that eat them. There are bad kinds of bristle worms, but in general they are good, they eat the leftover food and prevent it from just rotting and causing ammonia and organics; less work for your skimmer. I just big ones I see. For example, a few months ago I pulled one out that was nearly 12" long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 October 29, 2005 Share October 29, 2005 Coral Banded Shrimp will eat them. If you don't have an overabundance of them (such as seeing them hanging off of the rock constantly) then don't worry about them. The larger ones can be kind of mean, but unless you actually have one going after stuff, don't worry about it. Too many of them means you're overfeeding, so if you do have lots of them, cut back on feeding, there's too much that's not being eaten and causing a population explosion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex wlazlak October 29, 2005 Share October 29, 2005 it seems like i feed a good bit, but my clownfish and yellow tang go rite after it and the damsel can barly get any. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Keyoke October 29, 2005 Share October 29, 2005 I never had much luck with my coral banded eating 'em. But I added an arrow crab to the tank about a month ago, and all the worms are nearly gone.. I've actually seen the arrow crab munching on a chunk of worm so I assume that it's doing the trick... funny looking things to boot. The kids love it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unninair October 29, 2005 Share October 29, 2005 Alex, Please dont add anything to your tank until it stabilizes..... ( I am assuming you have high nitrites still). Unni Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex wlazlak October 29, 2005 Share October 29, 2005 okay. :( . i am gonna do a water chnage today. do you think my test kit could be bad? ive had it fool a year or two and its the doc. wellfish kind. im going to get one of those master kits by one of those big name brands and spend like $50 on it all. theyre expensive as heck :idea2: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davelin315 October 30, 2005 Share October 30, 2005 The "Master" test kits are not so great either. Just buy a reliable brand and you'll end up spending about the same amount anyway for the tests you get. About that arrow crab up above, watch out! They're very predatory. They'll rip apart your snails, hermit crabs, any fish they can actually catch, and even go after meaty corals. I had a friend with one that ate everything in sight. We'd sit and watch it grab snails and crabs and pull them out of their shells and eat them. It also squatted on a coral and just began munching on it (softie). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex wlazlak October 30, 2005 Share October 30, 2005 screw that than. ive had enough trouble with hemirts eating my snails.....now they know to stay on the glass Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex wlazlak November 7, 2005 Share November 7, 2005 for everyones information i have began doing water changes. i did a 2g water change (yeah watch out!!) and everything looks good. if i keep doing them in 2-3g changes, how often should i do them? like once a week or once every two weeks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phisigs79 November 7, 2005 Share November 7, 2005 i have a 55g and sometimes my nitrates get high and usually when i do a 10-15g water change they are ok. I read a article from RC and they say bigger water changes are better for the simple fact that it take alot more small water changes to solve the problem because you are taking out the new (nitrate free) water. I know that some people here think opposite but it has worked for me with no problems. To give you an example, if nitrates are at 25ppm and i do a 15g water change they are around 10-12 ppm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocko918 November 7, 2005 Share November 7, 2005 Great read on Nitrates. http://www.melevsreef.com/reducing_nitrates.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xeon November 7, 2005 Share November 7, 2005 i have a 55g and sometimes my nitrates get high and usually when i do a 10-15g water change they are ok. I read a article from RC and they say bigger water changes are better for the simple fact that it take alot more small water changes to solve the problem because you are taking out the new (nitrate free) water. I know that some people here think opposite but it has worked for me with no problems. To give you an example, if nitrates are at 25ppm and i do a 15g water change they are around 10-12 ppm. 44434[/snapback] My first two questions would be what kind of filtration/s are you running... and how large of a bio-load(livestock) do you have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phisigs79 November 7, 2005 Share November 7, 2005 My first two questions would be what kind of filtration/s are you running... and how large of a bio-load(livestock) do you have? 44436[/snapback] I have a 20 long sump and a medium bioload from what people keep telling me. My problem i believe lies in my sand bed ( 4year old crushed coral) . A DSB with finner sand according to this article might be my fix, but i have been waiting to grab some live sand off someone shutting down their system. Sorry to hijack this thread but this may help you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flowerseller November 7, 2005 Share November 7, 2005 I would not hesitate to use either or both a CBS or an AC to aide bristle worm control. I have both. For the last 15 years I've done frequent small water exchanges (about 10g a week) and had far better success than infrequent large exchanges. I add 10g to the system and then drain off 10g an hour later. IMO, while large exchanges do lower nitrates quickly, they generally do it at the expense of lower ALK and PH. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Folta November 7, 2005 Share November 7, 2005 Thats a pretty small water change Chip, especially seeing as how your tank is bigger than a 55, right? On top of that, you're potentially taking out some of the water you just added, since you're adding first then removing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flowerseller November 7, 2005 Share November 7, 2005 Very true except I generally do that as much as 3-4 times a month. Some get's exchanged with my QT tank which keeps it fresh and alive. It's fast and efficient since it takes a couple minutes to add and then about 10 minutes to remove with some light vaccuuming in my known detitius collection spots in the sump. I designed my sump baffeling and plumbing to acheive these collection spots to hasten water exchanges and maintenance. I'm really not concerned about the potential of removing some "new" sea water since in the grand scheme of things it's still diluted with the existing tank water anyway. Plus, I don't have enough hair on my head to split here anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex wlazlak November 8, 2005 Share November 8, 2005 could the bristle worms clean off my glass? the glass under the sand was all green with algea, and now a couple of spots, where i can see the worms, are clean now. think it was them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex wlazlak November 29, 2005 Share November 29, 2005 update i guess... i have done two 3g water changes and everything is looking good. do you gus think i should do a 3g change once a week, or everyother week? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miller November 29, 2005 Share November 29, 2005 in my 55gl i do 10gl every other week Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest alex wlazlak November 29, 2005 Share November 29, 2005 okay, ill try 4 gallons on friday. and then if that seems to go well, ill do that every week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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