My discus aquarium is becoming a zoo...

[paniza]

All right, I had to turn my canister off to clean it... when I turned back on, 100s of small white worms came out of the 2nd stage (bacterial). they are quite small and do not stick to the glass.

I saw what they are in the sickness/desease index thus, I need to make sure I have less left over in the tank.

I bet those things appear because of the beef heart. Even overfeeding BW and shrimps I never got anything like that. They look like worms from spoiled meat to me.

Well, now I know why people like back filters for discus. :cool:

[henryD]

Nah you get those from back filters too. I had one that would do the same thing. They only way to prevent it is to clean out the filters before you turn on the water.

Henry

[Mr. Limpet]

If you cleaned the filter, why were the worms still in there? Paul.

[paniza]

Paul,

It is because I didn't clean the 2nd stage.

I have a Fluvial 404 as a 1st stage...there I use only media to clean the water... basically sponge and acrylic fiber. Water goes out of the 404, in a 2nd stage that is a home made 4” x 22” PVC tube with 3 boxes of EHEIM substrate in it. That stage I do not clean every week to avoid the risk of killing the bacterial in there.

HTMS

[brewmaster15]

These worms are nothing to really be worried about... Probably every tank out there has some.. The better maintained the tank... The less the numbers of worms.

Frequent good rinses get rid of them.. I usually will alternate biofilter cleanings so I minimize any effect on biofiltration.

hth,
al

[Mr. Limpet]

Now I understand, I didn't realize that the second stage was not the the second level in your Fluval. Paul.