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Thread: Help needed to clean tank with tubifex worms hiding in sand!

  1. #1
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    Unhappy Help needed to clean tank with tubifex worms hiding in sand!

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    I recently fed my tetras with tubifex worms which has caused some Infections and disease which wiped out my whole tetra community. It was 150 of them.
    I have removed most of my sand from the tank, transferred all my danios into another tank.
    I then found that there were still tubifex worms hiding in the sand. I tried vacuuming, but doesn't seemed to work successfully. I still have 2 pails of sand which I have removed from the tank which I believe that there are sure to have worms I them too.
    I intend to clear up the worms before I set up a new community. Can anyone advise how to clear the stupid worms in the sand please...

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    Re: Help needed to clean tank with tubifex worms hiding in sand!

    Non-expert but practical reply: Spread the sand out on newspaper and dry them under direct sun until it is really really dry. The heat should kill the worms and then they end up being organic fertiliser for your sand. :-)
    Vincent - AQ is for everyone, but not for 'u' and 'mi'.
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    Re: Help needed to clean tank with tubifex worms hiding in sand!

    Brother, any other alternatives? When i finished work the Sun is also off work already.

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    Re: Help needed to clean tank with tubifex worms hiding in sand!

    You can try boiling the sand too.
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    Re: Help needed to clean tank with tubifex worms hiding in sand!

    Would leaving the sand to stand in regular tap water kill the worms? Due to presence of chloramine and chlorine in our water?

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    Re: Help needed to clean tank with tubifex worms hiding in sand!

    The chlorine and chloramine in our tap water is not concentrated enough to wipe them out. My mum used to put tubifex worms under a dripping tap to keep them alive.

    Jasper, drying them out will take a few days, so you should put them out in the morning and go to work. When you get home, stir the sand so that the wet sand at the bottom is cycled to the top. Or do it on the weekend?

    If you can't leave them outside when you go to work, assuming you live in a HDB flat or something like that, just spread them out indoors near an airy window. Let it air dry... just takes longer.

    Many ways, use your creativity. If you want a safe natural way, then heat or drying is the answer. Just need to fit within your restrictions.

    Alternatively, I can think of 5% chlorine bleach wash, but residue bleach could affect your new set up. Or try snail killer... but the residue from that could kill shrimp if you put them in your new tank.
    Vincent - AQ is for everyone, but not for 'u' and 'mi'.
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    Re: Help needed to clean tank with tubifex worms hiding in sand!

    Thx for all advices.
    I think I will use the boiling method.
    Will soak the sand in boiling water tonight. Hopefully will kill all the worm.
    Any buddy here tried before? I doubt they can withstand the heat.

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    Re: Help needed to clean tank with tubifex worms hiding in sand!

    If you haven't remove your sand from the tank yet, maybe you can try putting in a few coolie loaches, botias or corydoras. They are bottom dwellers, so will sniff out the worms and eat them..... After that you can still keep them in your new setup.

    And since you say that the worms caused a disease outbreak in your tank, maybe you can disinfect the worms thats still hiding in the sand with potassium permanganate first, then introduce the fishes i recommended into the tank to eat them up.
    Admiring my Fishes calm the Beast within me

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    Re: Help needed to clean tank with tubifex worms hiding in sand!

    watch your feeding too with your new scape too, I notice that leftovers are a big cause for the worms to propagate.

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