Lighting, Cycling, and the Worm

[pkremer]

OK, a strange subject!

First of all, today I replaced the original bulb that came with my aquarium...it was a bright white light, and it was "bleaching" the colors out of it...I didn't like it at all. On the advice of my LFS, I decided to try a ZooMed Reef Sun 50/50 (this will be a FOWLR tank), and I am VERY happy with the result. All the colors of the rock and algae are much better highlighted and the tank has an absolutely gorgeous glow now!

My cycle is well on the way! My question is I'd like to know if these levels are getting too high for any life in the rocks?

Ammonia - 4 ppm
Nitrite - 5 to 8 ppm
Nitrate - 20 ppm


Also, there is a worm that has crawled out of the rock into the sand! I assume it is possibly because the ammonia and nitrite are so high? Anyway, I don't know anything about worms? Get rid of him? Or let him be? I took a picture, but I guess the site won't let me upload it, it seems there is a 2 MB quota now???

 

[zuzecawi]

The nitrate is definitely high for inverts. 25ppm and it generally seems to start killing your corals and inverts. Leave the worm be. It may just be migrating.

 

[pkremer]

OK, so I am looking at doing a water change here pretty quick? It's 4 days into my cycle...how aggressive with the water changes should I be? I don't want a massive algae problem or to kill any life inside the rocks...this is the INITIAL cycle with live rock, no fish or anything else yet.

I wasn't sure if it was a bristle worm or not...it's kind of a clearish color with a black line running down it. Like I said, I know nothing about worms...