Detritus worms

[Ch0le]

Hello. After a mini anxiety atack last night, I believe my tank has these worms. My fishless 10 gallon is over run with them on the glass. Very small, almost clear. I have to really look to eee them move. The problem is that my Betta shipped from Thailand yesterday. I want him to have a healthy tank. I have been working at this for weeks now. I believe the worms came from some frogbit, but not sure. They showed up after some final touches in my tank. I have carib sea naturals. I now see some in my 20 gallon with gravel, but no where near the amount as the fishless 10 gallon. Should I change out my sand and boil everything that can stand it. I have a sponge filter as well. I can part with the plants as there are only a few in there at the moment. I'm ready to scrub this tank. Please help. I read what I could find on the forums last night.

 

[Colin_T]

Picture please.

Detritus worms normally live in the substrate and only swarm over the glass if there is a water quality issue or the substrate has gone off.

Just do a big water change and gravel clean and make the there is no ammonia or nitrite and the nitrate is less than 20ppm.

They don't harm the fish and are in most tanks. The fact they are no longer in the substrate would indicate something is not quite right with the tank.

 

[Ch0le]

My ammonia is 0, nitrites are 0, and nitrate is looks like between 0 and 5.0 ppm.hard to tell. I'm really concerned it's the substrate, but it's been in the tank with water for almost 3 weeks. I carelessly put a new frogbit plant in the tank 2 days ago as well.

 

[Colin_T]

It looks like there might be hydra in there too. Nothing to worry about. Just water change and monitor.

 

[Ch0le]

Should I switch to gravel? I've never done sand before.

 

[Colin_T]

you can use sand or gravel, it doesn't make any difference unless you keep bottom dwelling fishes like Corydoras or eels, they should have sand if possible or a smooth gravel.

 

[Ch0le]

I emptied the tank, through away the plants and the sand. Maybe drastic, but they really creep me out. I have a few in my 20 gal. I noticed some getting sucked up into the filter. How should I deal with theHydra in that tank? I have the heebie jeebies!

 

[Colin_T]

if you flushed out the tank then the hydra will probably be gone.

 

[Ch0le]

Sorry. I flushed out my 10 gallon and have done a big water change on my 20 gal. The 20 gal has the hob that I'm worried they will live in forever. It also has a sponge filter. I pray they don't come back in my 10.