These worms really creep me out but they are harmless detrivours that are beneficial to your reef aquarium. These can sometimes have an orange tint to them.
Category Archives: detrivores
Black saltwater snails In the marine reef aquarium
Many people are used to seeing grey/silver snails in the marine reef aquarium but are not used to seeing black saltwater snails in there tanks. Reef aquariums with live rock can sometimes have a whole slew of hitchhikers in them. Sometimes they are not seen for the first few weeks but they eventually come out, especially at night.
There can be hundreds if not thousands of different types of snails and for the casual reef keeper they can be very difficult to identify. The important part about identifying a saltwater snail is to look at its shell shape, its foot and its proboscis. Aside from the markings on the shell, the color of a snails shell has little impact on what type of snail it is. A couple of black saltwater snails that come to mind are of the nerite and stomalleta species. You can find more about snails on the right side of this page entitled “Beneficial reef aquarium snails”.
Detritus in the reef aquarium
I recently answered a question through a pm on an online reef hobby forum about detritus control. This is a rather complex subject because the amount of detritus in marine reef aquariums vary from tank to tank. Detritus is an issue that every aquarium owner has to deal with from time to time, In order to control it you have to know what it is.
Detritus in our reef aquarium is for the most part and without going into specifics; Uneaten food and fecal matter. Now I could go into detail about what else detritus could be as far as mineral grains and what not but I want to keep this short and easily understandable. Since detritus for the most part is uneaten food and fecal matter it is organic in nature and therefore must be dealt with before it becomes a problem for your water chemistry or food for nuisance algae. Detritus in most cases looks like “dust” in many reef tanks. It will settle on rocks, sand and corals if not properly taken care of. A buildup of detritus in the reef tank will cause algae outbreaks and it will effect the reef’s water chemistry.
There are two things you can do when dealing with detritus. Both ways still lead to the same conclusion, that is, detritus removal.
1. Going with a bare bottomed reef tank with minimal live rock and a good amount of flow to keep detritus particles suspended. Blowing off your rocks from time to time and using a filter sock in your sump and/or mechanical filtration of some type will help remove detritus. Since reef tanks like these lack a sand bed, sucking out detritus and removing it in a system like this is vital as there are generally little to no detritivores that will clean it out for you. Having some detritivores will definitly help but they will not thrive without a proper refugium or sandbed.
Or
2. Buy detritivores such as cerith snails, spaghetti worms, bristleworms, amphipods, copepods, certain starfish and a whole host of other reef inhabitants that will pick up what your fish, corals and you leave behind. Most people opt for this option mainly because they like the look of a sandbed and appreciate the biodiversity in the reef tank. When using a sandbed in your reef tank it is still important to keep it free of detritus or to maintain your detritivore population.