Strange Worm Thing

[d_willi]

Hi it may be nothing, but I have a Aqua AR850 tank the one with the filter that goes through the lid, the other day I washed the filter out in the bath as it is a big filter. Just about finished and noticed something in the bath that looked like a little white worm (about 1/4 inch long and a few mm wide). I give it a prod and it started walking, yeah thats right (it had legs) but sort of lifted itself up and down as it walked. I have not noticed anymore in the tank, I do have a sand base but is aquarium sand and the tank has only been setup about a month. All the fish seem fine. Not hundred percent sure it came from the filter but my mrs was adament the bath had just been cleaned. I have never seen owt like it, unfortunately I rinsed it down plug hole as it freaked me out. Any ideas ???

 

[black angel]

Sounds like some sort of larva. You get a lot of flying insects that like to lay eggs in the filter media. Most of them are harmless.
Im a bit worried about you cleaning your filter in the bath. Does that mean you are using tap water and not old tank water? If you use tap water you kill all the beneficial bacteria in your media.
If you need to use tap water then make it warm water and use a dechlorinator.

 

[d_willi]

Cheers for that !

Did use warm water, not had a tank with such a large filter before (used to submersible filters use can just rinse out) and couldnt think of best way to clean the thing out, it is full length of tank 3ft long nearly and about half a foot wide, with 3 box sections that water trickles into , each box has filter media and ceramic noodles, just basically washed all the crap off and gave it a bit of a clean, left some cak on the filter media so it wasnt clean but wasnt full of cak either. Any suggestions on best way to clean a filter like this ? Dont have access to a hose pipe and it won't fit in a sink so bath seemed best option.

 

[black angel]

So you can take each section out to clean it? If so then fill the bath with warm water thats dechlored and swish everything under the water to remove the gunk. You might have to refill the bath if its really dirty water you are getting.
One heck of a filter though. Any chance of a pic??

 

[d_willi]

Good suggestion. Will try n get a decent pic of it when I get mi digi camera working will have to take a picture from quite high up though to fit it all on, but will try mi best, I was wrong its just has 2 big box sections and a pump at 1 end with a long tube with holes in it, and a siphon at the other end, its quite impressive to watch when you take the tops off, but yeah it is 1 heck of a filter. Keeps the water clean for ages. Ive had tropical fish for about 5 years now and Ive never seen one before, it was a right laugh trying to figure out what went where when building it all up. B)

 

[black angel]

Would really like to see it and how its put together

 

[d_willi]

This is the filter, couldnt quite fit it all on, the bit missing is where the water funnels back into the tank, it sucks up on the left through a pump then filters through the tube in the middle then through those big ass filters. It also has 3 lid sections that I have removed. 8)