Need Serious advice please...Think i have to start all over :(

[Budshark]

HI all, long story short. Tank(20g long AIO) is 7 months old and i have found that all of my live rock 7 pieces, have at least 3-5 eunicid worms in each of them. Not to mention the ones living in the sand. They are all small but know that with time it will become a bigger problem.

How do i fix this?? do i need to get rid of all the rock and sand?? dont see any other option as ive seen these eunicids EVERYWHERE and even baby ones that are super small. I dont trust just removing the rocks and cleaning the sand. Im sure ill miss some and just have this problem again later.

I have one clownfish one bangaii cardinal and about a dozen frags/corals that are easilly moveable.

Is there any hope? do i need to buy all new sand and rock? what do i do with my current livestock?

I need all the advice you can give please.

[username in use]

Are you sure they are eunicids? Can you provide an image? Even a google image that is the same?

I have heard of people getting them out by soaking the rocks in fresh water. You can also make traps for them.

[toothybugs]

If it were my system, I would remove and dip the corals, QT the fish and treat them with a little copper med, and then bleach the rock and sand. Bleach is easy to neutralize (in short, heat will do it, or hydrogen peroxide) and rid yourself of, you can bleach a tank and have it dry and clean by the end of a weekend. Especially a small system like yours - bet it could be done in a day.

Unfortunately you'd have to re-cycle your tank afterward but I wouldn't expect you need to kill anything off - sand and LR are easy enough to get going again.

That's what I'd do were it mine. Stay away from copper because it can pose a problem later when you re-use your sand and dry rock.

[username in use]

Why does he need to medicate the fish if they are healthy?

[Budshark]

yes i had to go online and research to find out since no one was replying to my ID posts. its definitely a Eunicid and so far that have not harm anything that i can tell, but from all im reading its only a matter of time before they do and with the amount that i have they are going to eat all my stuff up

[Crooked Reef]

I agree if they truly are eunicid worms. I have seen videos of big ones taking lionfish I would set up a quarantine tank and move fish and corals to it. Dip the corals first. Bleach or acid bathe the rocks to get rid of them and just buy new sand. But dry sand as it is cheaper and will seed off of a new piece of live rock just like your old rock will. I would suggest getting live rock rubble. It will have the same bacteria that full size rocks will have but you can visually inspect it easier due to its size to see if there are any unwanted hitchhikers. Lastly I wouldn't get the rubble from the same place you bought the original rock from as the worms probably hitched in on them. More than likely the store uses the same holding tank for the rubble as the full size rock.

[Paul B]

Why does he need to medicate the fish if they are healthy?

That's what I was going to say. I am pretty sure your worms are bristle worms because I can't enlarge those pictures to well. But I would leave them alone. If they are eunicid worms they should starve in your tank as they can only eat small prey. But like I said, I can't really see them.
If you are worried about them make a trap. You can either take a small piece of clam and roll it up in a piece of nylon stocking and put a rubber band around it with a string so you can take it out or make a tiny lobster trap out of any small container. Make a funnel out of a screen and put some clam in it. I catch dozens of bristle worms like that and I assume your worms would also be caught.
I wouldn't tear down my tank if it was over run with snakes, penguins or manta rays.

[Crooked Reef]

Originally Posted by username in use

Why does he need to medicate the fish if they are healthy?

I wouldn't medicate them either. The worms are not parasites. They live in the sand and one the rocks.

[Budshark]

it looks exactly like the 4th and 5th picture in the thread below under the Eunicid species.

http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchworms.html

[Indymann99]

just make a trap out of a old soda bottle (google for pictures - you just cut the bottle in half and invert the top into the base, put food in and leave overnight, in morning you will have worms in the trap). No need to tear down your nice tank.

[Crooked Reef]

Originally Posted by Paul B

That's what I was going to say. I am pretty sure your worms are bristle worms because I can't enlarge those pictures to well. But I would leave them alone. If they are eunicid worms they should starve in your tank as they can only eat small prey. But like I said, I can't really see them

The first pic has distinct antennae on the worm but this is probably a good idea. Corals only need light to eat so if you decide to be careful, quarantine the fish in a different tank and wait for the worms to die off. Does anyone know how long the worms can live in a tank that has no fish? Do they eat pods and if so is it enough to keep them alive?

I also just read that there are many species of eunicids and many don't get big enough to take fish. I would still be worried though. You can try spraying soda water in the rocks. They should come out. Rinse the rocks in saltwater and replace them. I have read that this works.

[Budshark]

thx crooked reef this sounds like the way i have to go. Do you know of anywhere where i can get info on this process of bleaching/acid washing the rocks? i.e. how long they soak, and then how long to rinse and dry out specifics? and for QT setup i have a 10g but the corals will have to have light whereas the fish wont care correct? Anyone else want to chime in with tips or suggestions im all ears ......thanks again everyone, this is my first tank and am pretty bummed after much success to find this issue and know its all gonna get tore down

[Crooked Reef]

You can google the bleaching and acid wash. I don't know enough about it to give the process. Other people do have good advice though. Truthfully I would try to trap them or starve them first. They have to be pretty big to take your fish. Just go slow and maybe they will work themselves out. The worms shouldn't eat the corals the more I think of it so if you go the quarantine and starve the worms route just keep the tank running like normal and the corals should be fine.

[Budshark]

I feed my tank chopped up mysis with some dr g plankton stuff and as soon as it hits the water these worms emerge from their holes looking to grab any that float by and are actively looking for it on the floor. Are there "good" eunicid worms?? Not from everything ive read so far.... should i qt my corals and fish in the 10g and starve my main tank? the only loss i would be sad with is an awesome porcelain crab that is there....................would the worms then go after the snails in the main tank with no food source? or the hermits?

[Crooked Reef]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1775803 read this thread

[Crooked Reef]

Not sure about the crabs and snails as food but you could move them to the quarantine as well.

[Budshark]

LOL everyone has showed me that thread hahahaha. This is why i want to get rid of them all while they are little and not so gross. I would try the trap method but they are literallly in EVERY rock in my tank and multiples in each rock AND in the sandbed. I will never feel like i got all of them unless i "nuke" every rock and replace the sand. I also noticed a couple flatworms so it looks like a complete tear down may happen.....

[MrTuskfish]

I know very little about inverts, my Daughter & Wife do. (So I should wait for them to get home). But with that disclaimer, aren't these in the family of worms that praziquantel (Prazi-Pro) would kill?

[julie180]

Sorry to hear you are having so much trouble. I have never had bad hitchhikers but I totally understand your wanting to start fresh. I would never feel "safe" unless I did.

Best of luck!

[Budshark]

Ive decided to acid wash my live rock and completely replace the sand. In my current setup i have only two filter pads running with gfo and carbon in media bags. Im using the live rock as my main form of filtration.

I plan on removing all live rock and corals from live rocks and putting on sandbed of current setup while i do the acid wash. Once i have the acid wash done and rocks are completely rinsed and dried thoroughly. Ill move all the livestock to a qt tank so i can replace all the sand and clean everything.

once clean ill buy new natures ocean live sand and put the rockwork back in with new sand and let that cycle. Once ammonia spike is done i can move livestock back in right?

These are my current thoughts but im sure im missing some steps or forgetting something crucial, any advise on how to tackle this is is greatly appreciated. I hope i can do this........................

[thenewguy997]

After seeing a video of those worms attacking a lionfish and reading they can grow to 20ft i say blowtorch the tank lolol sell the house get out while you still can!!!

[ChrisBFord]

you might want to try Subquaria worm krush before starting over.

[bif24701]

That all sounds good, though I wouldn't bother with live sand it just cost extra IMHO. You would be better off with a cup of sand from am established reef system. Read up good on the acid wash thing, it can be dangerous. Maybe you could just by new good quality dry rock, I'm very happy with BRS Pukani.