I Have Worms?

[Animalhouse]

I started a 38 gallon planted tank a little over a year ago with various hardy species planted in approximately 3 inches of garden soil no additives and 2 inches of aquarium gravel. All was well for about a year until about three months ago some of the soil began to find its way on top of the gravel. As time went on the aquarium became more and more cloudy. This sparked increased water changes etc only to have it revert to its cloudy state in a week and hence more water changes, vacuuming, filters poly fiber, fluval, carbon etc and still only immediate improvements. What I had noticed in this time however, was large mounds of feces approximately the diameter of a quarter and half and inch tall piles with strands no bigger than the led of a mechanical pencil. One night I happened to turn on the light unexpectedly and I swear I saw something that resembled a bristle worm in a reef tank. I believe it is these “worms” that are making my water cloudy by disturbing the substrate. Can anyone tell me what they are and how to manage them?

I probably should include a few more details about the tank. I have ten Rasboras, 3 cory cats, 3 otocinclus, 12 nerite snails and 12 cherry shrimp. I also have a fluval 404 which provides plenty of circulation and also aids in the cloudiness when these worms leave there mounds of silt feces at the top of the substrate. I would love to find a natural way without killing anything else in my tank to maybe not eradicate them but reduce their population enough so that I’m not left with 1/8 of an inch of silt on my substrate every week. It’s made this tank a lot of work to stay esthetically pleasing. I have snuck up on these worms with a flashlight but have only seen a few that were orange in color and disappeared so fast I couldn’t really see if it had bristles or not.

 

[Snick]

it is possible that the cories have moved the substrate enough to lift up some dirt, but of course that is kinda hard as corys dont really dog that deep...about the worms, i saw some chemicals that you can buy at your LFS that kill all unwanted guests, so you might try looking for such.