high population of bristle worms

[rose.crystal26]

i have a 30 gal tank with a sand base bottom.had a person takin care of it but the past year she quit.so now im trying.tank is 6 yrs old.i have

• lots of live rock
• yellow gobie
• 2 clown
• waving hand corral
• 2 turbo snails
• 2 peppermint shrimp
• 1 banded corral shrimp

questions
saw huge population of worms,some close to 7"long,can cleaning or replacing the sand decrease the amount of worms?if i replace the sand will it crash the tank?
some suggested starve the tank.can i get a smaller spare tank to put live stock in for 2 weeks and leave main tank alone the switch them back?

 

[Supa Belle]

You can try a splendid dotty back they hunt and eat bristle worms

 

[bavass]

if you replace the sand I would do it slow. If you do it all at one time it's likly to cause a cycle

 

[Grizz]

Cut back on feeding the worms will die off The dotty will eat your shrimp, pretty fish though And they can get snotty towards other fish

 

[rose.crystal26]

i feed the fish 3x a week.a small frozen brine shrimp block.will it hurt my fish if i feed them less?

 

[mr_X]

The person that took care of it used to feed a lot and didn't do a lot of cleaning, hence the abundance of worms. I would not replace the sand. You may vacuum some of the top layer a bit, but not too much. Meanwhile, besides being unsightly to some, the worms aren't going to hurt anything. They are your cleanup crew. Now you don't have to buy crabs and such.
You could always manually remove the large ones with tongs and flush them.
the less feeding will keep them from growing in numbers.

 

[rose.crystal26]

thank you everyone

 

[Holygral]

Arrow crabs also eat small ones