fire worms

susz · #1 07/05/2007, 08:17 PM

I have a 5 gallon tank, that I have seen some "fire worms" in. I am researching right now on sitting up a 75 gallon reef tank. I have caught several worms, but they just seem to have gravel in them, and I only find them eating algae. I havn't had them bother either my mushroom poply;s or my zoanthids. Should I try to rid the tank of them or are they doing my a natural method of algae control? They are light brown/yellow with a dark patch on there back.
I am researching several books and trying to study reef aquariuams on line and also have gotton a substrition to a reef keeping magazine. I feel that I should take my time and learn as much as I can before I start my bigger tank, anybody have any other suggestions.
Right now I have a 5 gallon tank, with hang on filter, live rock, and shells, agronitefor my substrate. I have 9 red mushroom, 2 large greens, and a new start up colony of zoainds. I also have one false percule, which has driven home that fish must be kept at a minumem if I am to be successful with a reef aqurium. I run 8.2 pH,
0 ammonioum and nitrate, and sometimes up to 10 ppm nitrite. I do a 20% water changed every 7- 10 days as I have no protien skimmer.
Any advice would be greatly appreciatede

kkyyllee · #2 07/05/2007, 08:22 PM

bristleworms are good, and will and cannot eat livecorals, there a good part of ur cuc, the clown ist oo much biolaod for ur tank that why u have high trites

bertoni · #3 07/05/2007, 08:45 PM

There are thousands of species of bristleworms, and most of them are fine to have, but not all. All fireworms are bristleworms, by definition, and only one species is known to be a problem. The worms are likely good to have:

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-04/rs/index.php

susz · #4 07/05/2007, 09:03 PM

Thank-You! My first thoughts of starting my 75 gal. tank is to use live rock and substatre in the correct quanity, a good protein skimmer , t-5 lights, a hang on biological filter. Study good stocking ptotocals and start lite before adding to much. It is better to learn each speices well before adding more. Although I like my Clown fish, he is causibg to many trites so adding fish will be have to thought of very sparly and in limted quatities as I really want a reef tank.
THANK YOU AGAIN

susz · #5 07/05/2007, 09:27 PM

Thank-You for the great article from reef central , it cleared up my question and informed of many other worms . Thanks bertoni.

bertoni · #6 07/05/2007, 10:12 PM

You're welcome! I hope all your worms are good one!

LeslieH · #7 07/05/2007, 10:33 PM

Whoa, hold on there Jonathan. While I'm the first to praise the virtues of worms I have to be honest - it's incorrect to say only one fireworm is bad. Better to say that of the species that commonly show up in tanks one is pure evil (from a reefer's point of view, not mine

) and some others are capable of eating corals but usually don't. The vast majority are fine, respectable members of the reef community.

bertoni · #8 07/05/2007, 10:38 PM

Well, okay.

I'll be more detailed in the future.

bertoni · #9 07/05/2007, 10:38 PM

And I'm shocked that you're calling a worm "evil".

loosecannon · #10 07/06/2007, 12:51 AM

Susz: Your live rock, and substatre are the BEST ,AND ONLY BIOLOGICAL FILTER YOU NEED!

coast2coast7390 · #11 07/06/2007, 01:09 AM

ive seen a fire worm with a maroon clown in side it...whole

Grins · #12 07/06/2007, 01:18 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by coast2coast7390
ive seen a fire worm with a maroon clown in side it...whole

Please tell me you're kidding.

coast2coast7390 · #13 07/06/2007, 03:01 AM

nope we pulled one out of our DS and it had a bulge in the middle...so our boss cut it and there it was