Tube worms

Tomaquar · 07-10-2005, 03:41 PM

Pic 4 shows the big one. The first one. Pic 1 shows a small section of the rest. Pic 1 is about 1/2 inch square. Every surface in the tank is just like the pic. Hundreds and hundreds of tiny, calcified tube worms. They are on the glass, all the rock and inside the powerhead. Someone suggested a pepppermint shrimp.

Ive removed the big one in the hopes that it was the source for the rest.

Any suggestions?

wharyat · 07-10-2005, 03:47 PM

Why do you want to get rid of them? They will actually help as a biological particulate filter.

They are actually a good thing.

Tomaquar · 07-10-2005, 03:53 PM

Numbers. They are covering every surface. 10 - 20 Very cool. 100 - 200 a bit much. 1000 - 2000 my tank.

There are so many I had to clean them out of the power head.

Twitterbait · 07-10-2005, 04:19 PM

Shrimp will not help. The nice thing about these guys is that they will not sting your corals. so if you want to just put your coral right on top of them. the only fish i can think of off the top o my head to eat them would be a trigger.

wharyat · 07-10-2005, 05:47 PM

Well, just remember they will do no damage. The only plausible way to get rid of them is to scrape them off. I have maybe 5-800 in my 20 and I'm sure half are empty shells, most of them never grow very large. They love areas with high flow and little or no light.

A CBB would also eat some; but never buy a fish or animal to take care of a specific job that can be solved another way, especially something as difficult as a copper band.

Tomaquar · 07-10-2005, 08:04 PM

Vince I agree about butterflys. Too fragile and Im sure they would love my polyps. I wouldnt be concerned if the tubeworms hadnt gummed up my power head.

Does anyone know how sensitive these worms are to specific gravity. I only have a few animals in tank and could move them to the quaritine tank. Is there a salinity point that would kill the tube worms but not excessively damage teh rock/coraline/copepods?

yardboy · 07-11-2005, 06:12 AM

Any conditions that are not favorable to tubeworms will be unfavorable to pretty much everything else in your tank. Don't obsess about them. If they are in your powerhead, clean it out. If its not tubeworms, it'll be some other funk that will require cleaning anyway. I just soaked two in vinegar for several hours to remove built up layers of calcium carbonate, but I'm not about to quit dosing calcium to prevent that.

My latest nano tank had the rock cycling in a dark container for months, the populations of tubeworms got really high on the rock. I find it fascinating to watch them, and they definitely filter the water for particulate.

Loverotties · 07-11-2005, 07:08 AM

I only see two pic so I can't say anything on pic 4 but the 1st two are good to have .If they get to your powerhead just take apart and clean it.If you want to get rid I guess scrape off the rock or maybe joe juice or a kalswater paste.