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02/20/2015, 10:48 PM | #1 |
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Bristleworms part 2, massive population!
I can't figure out what the heck these things are eating and it's freaking me out! I'm not worried about the worms themselves, i'm worried at how big the population is getting.
Fish in my 150G: 1 blue tang 1 yellow tang 2 black clowns 1 orange clown 1 6 line 1 royal gramma 1 blue chromis I feed using an auto feeder (neptune AFS) it's on the second the lowest setting and I feed pellets once a day. I have an over-sized lifereef skimmer. Been running ecobak pellets, GFO (high cap) and Carbon. My Nitrates stay around 5-10 and my phosphates .03-05 I have to clean my front glass almost every day. I can't feed any less, simply can't do it. I also used to feed corals twice a week (roids and oyster feast) alternating... I probably have 500-600 worms in my system, at night they are EVERYWHERE! Are people feeding their reef by skipping days? I hear to control worms, you cut back on feedings but I feed a small amount daily there isn't much food hitting the bottom. I also have a large crab/snail population. So damn confused because it doesn't make sense! |
02/20/2015, 11:56 PM | #2 |
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Sorry for your worm problem,,,I am an advocate of getting rid of bristle worms,,if they show their face ,I head hunt them down and there gone just because I dont want your situation..
I got backlash from my opinion but its my tank,,maybe I should get you connected with the person that likes them alot .. I was told their population is self regulating to the food source,,,yeah right by hearing your situation.. |
02/21/2015, 12:12 AM | #3 |
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do you clean your sandbed?
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02/21/2015, 12:16 AM | #4 |
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what are you worried about? they are beneficial scavengers, just leave them be, they are not going to cause any harm
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02/21/2015, 01:11 AM | #5 |
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bag some up and ship them to me i need some diversity in my tank. as long as they get along with my feather duster.
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02/21/2015, 01:11 AM | #6 | |
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It's how they are growing in population, I am under the impression that I am feeding light. Obviously what I think im doing and what im actually doing are not the same; recipe for disaster in this hobby. Can someone with more experience than me define "cut back on feeding" ? |
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02/21/2015, 06:53 AM | #7 |
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Feed as much as you can export with a large skimmer, the worms are not harmful and are the best member of your cleanup crew. There are a few bad that eat corals, if you have the good ones 99% you do they are fantasic and as above they eat dead matter
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02/21/2015, 08:24 AM | #8 |
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Did you happen to lose a fish in the past and never found it? Large snail?
It's likely that there was some large amount of dead matter or food/detritus was able to pile up under a rock. They fed and grew in numbers. Continue feeding just what your fish can eat in a minute or two and let the bristle worms work out their own populations. It may take a while to see their populations decrease without your intervention and manual removal or the addition of something that eats them. This is because as some die due to starvation, they will be cannibalized and some more will grow from that. Eventually they should die back to reasonable numbers but you'll end up with some very large "momma" worms. |
02/21/2015, 08:31 AM | #9 | |
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To answer earlier question, I run just under a 2 inch sandbed and stir/clean it weekly during my Sunday 15% water change. |
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02/21/2015, 08:42 AM | #10 |
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Wow, that doesn't sound like a lot of food for that many fish. How old is the tank?
I have probably three times that bioload in my 190 and I'm up to 6 cubes per day or so, plus a few pellets. As is mentioned above, I wouldn't worry about the worms. My Gramma loreto eats them as well. My nutrients are about 0 nitrates and .03 phosphates.
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02/21/2015, 09:00 AM | #11 |
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Thinking about switching to a calc reactor, and converting my Neptune 2 part DOS pump to dose vodka to help with nutrients.
I keep my alk at 7.5 and my nitrates have never registered 0. So many params to chase in this hobby, never know if I'm doing something wrong. |
02/21/2015, 09:10 AM | #12 |
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Bristleworms part 2, massive population!
Depending on the size if the pellets that can be a tremendous amount of food. I use the NLS 1mm pellets and I have it on the first opening with 2 rotations twice a day. I have an equivalent sized bioload in a 125 and if I put it on the second setting the food would DUMP out and would have left over food all over.
With the worms they populate to how much food is available, so if you're seeing the population explode it's because they're finding food and reproducing. Once the food source dies down so will the population. Are you feeding the range nori too? That in of itself is a huge chunk of nutrients. I give my tags a 3x2inch piece every other day. They get the pellets everyday with mysis on the alternating day with the more. Again though, just enough that they can eat in the first 30-40 seconds.
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My 125 to 180 thread: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2525019 Last edited by FishN00b83; 02/21/2015 at 09:15 AM. |
02/21/2015, 09:18 AM | #13 |
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Get a dottyback they are a natural predator of bristleworms, my orchid dottyback devours them as soon as it sees them.
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02/21/2015, 09:51 AM | #14 |
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The bristleworms could also be dining on fish waste.
I had many bristleworms to the point that I often get stuck merely picking up a frag from the sandbed because there were many bristles under it. Then some small brittlestars snuck their way in and eventually they out competed the bristles. I think I've seen one or two bristleworms in the last two years. Little brittlestar arms can sometimes be seen waving from crevices, but they've learned to stay hidden when my Melanurus wrasse is on patrol. When I purchased my Melanurus from the LFS, I saw him pull a bristleworm out from a clump of polyps and schlurp it down as we would a long piece of spaghetti.
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The human desires for instant gratification and immediate problem resolution cannot be satisfied with this hobby. Former president and co-president of the Wine Country Reefers. Current Tank Info: 60 gallons of Scleractinia and Zoanthidae lit w/ LEDs |
02/21/2015, 10:24 AM | #15 |
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You can seriously export a few to my tank I wouldn't mind at all.
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02/21/2015, 10:35 AM | #16 |
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How's your water circulation? You might have some dead spots that could be collecting a lot of detritus. I had a similar problem, not nearly to your proportions. But when I upgrated to a couple mp40s, I've noticed a significant decline in bristle worms.
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02/21/2015, 10:42 AM | #17 |
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Between my coral banded shrimp and wrasse they dont live long if they come out in the open. Wrasse eats the little ones and the CBS eats the big ones. Beats the crap out of them first then eats them. Fun to watch actually.
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My family asked if I love my aquarium more than them...I have not answered Current Tank Info: 150gal custom reef, 36" Ruby Trigger Sump, Halide/T5 Lights, Reef Octopus 170SSS Skimmer, Reef Octopus 5500 controlable return, Maxspec Gyre xf150, Hydor Koralia Power Head 1150X2 |
02/21/2015, 10:45 AM | #18 | |
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In my opinion, my flow is great and very random. I am sure there may be a dead spot or two with the rock work but my sandbed stays fairly clean. Looks brand new after my water change/siphon routine. I am using the larger crossover diet pellets from Neptune which I suspect have high levels of Po4; they are supposed to secrete a layer of food to mix into the water that feeds the corals. I may go back to my smaller spectrum pellets. I feed nori by hand once per week, crabs and yellow tang eats it. My blue tang ignores all veggies for some reason which is odd because his color is extremely vibrant blue. |
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02/21/2015, 11:08 AM | #19 |
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02/21/2015, 01:03 PM | #20 |
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02/21/2015, 01:31 PM | #21 |
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As some have suggested, bristleworms are a superb problem to have. Few better at helping to clean up the 'mess'. Does seem curious that you have such a large population as they typically wax and wane in response to the available food. I feed my 265 somewhere between 6 and 8 cube-equivalents of food per day and have only a modest population. It is worth noting that the old 'feed what your fish will consume in 5 minutes' is terrible advice for a reef tank. I'd have to feed a half a flat pack at a time for it to last that long. Adding two thawed cubes lasts about 15-20 seconds; with almost none hitting the sand and absolutely none going over the wiers. Perhaps you should think about feeding more frequently, but in lesser doses?
I'd also suggest if you have nutrient problems with feeding at the level you do, that your nutrient export mechanism are inadequate. I don't generally bother to remove detritus, and I don't stir my sand, but I do run a large skimmer, export algae from both a scrubber and a refugium, and employ a number of chemical filter media. All keep my nutrient levels at negligible levels and I have no pest algae despite heavy feeding.
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Simon Got back into the hobby ..... planned to keep it simple ..... yeah, right ..... clearly I need a new plan! Pet peeve: anemones host clowns; clowns do not host anemones! Current Tank Info: 450 Reef; 120 refugium; 60 Frag Tank, 30 Introduction tank; multiple QTs |
02/21/2015, 01:34 PM | #22 |
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Eliminate what's reducing the waste and it can lead to worse problems. Right now they're in balance with your feeding levels. They can't be other than in balance with it because they can't grow and multiply without food.
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02/21/2015, 02:06 PM | #23 | |
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02/21/2015, 05:07 PM | #24 |
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Kurfer, by stir/clean your substrate what do you mean? Do you actually run a siphon thru it?
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02/21/2015, 05:20 PM | #25 |
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Yeah I use my siphon to dig into it suck some up and drop it until it's clean. Takes me about 15-20 mins
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