Cloudy water update & strange worm

[hebbah]

Hey there - you all have been tremendously helpful with all of my newbie questions!
I took your advice and turned off the lights and did a water change on the second day. The water is finally clearing up but it's quite slow. Today I ran the lights for about 3 hours and the water was a little more cloudy after that. Does that indicate an algae bloom?
I initially set up the tank with dechlorinated tap water and Instant Ocean (I know - shouldn't have done that!!)but I have been doing all of my water changes with RO water. How long will it take to clear the algae bloom? I really want to have sparkling water!!!

Also, I have a strange worm in the tank. It's quite long mabye 2 inches or so and has a black and white pattern on it. It is very thin, perhaps 1/16 in diameter and for a mouth it has a strange fuzzy brush that it uses to suck on the sand. It comes out only when the lights are off and it stays pretty much on the same place of the LR. It will retreat right away into the rock if you shine a light on it. I couldn't find any pictures of anything like it and I can't get a picture of it because it is so shy and the tank has to be dark for it to come out.
Does anyone have any clue what it is and if it is bad?

Thanks so much!!!
Hebbah

 

[Sharkie]

would it be a bristleworm by chance? i have alot of those and they don't like when i shine a light on them and are tiny like you describe

 

[hebbah]

Well, I guess it could but all the pictures I saw didn't have this black and white pattern...but then again I have never seen a real bristle worm...

 

[Sharkie]

hmm.. maybe it is a marbled brittle star, i have those and they look very similar to the bristleworms but are black and white. some are even brown and green and blue :) do they look anything like this?

 

[hebbah]

Well, the pattern is very similar but I am only seeing one worm (although I never see both ends because the one end is always hidden in the rock) but the worm part that I do see looks like it is all smooth. The pattern however is very similar!!!
THANKS SO MUCH for even putting a picture to help! I wish I could get one of this critter!

 

[RyanG]

Its probably 90% a brittle star

 

[hebbah]

Wow...that is kind of neat! I am going to try and see if I can see some more of it...!

 

[yote]

The worm your describing is a peanut worm.I've probably got close to 100 living in my live rock.They are completely safe and do a fair job of keeping detritus cleaned up.
You've probably got several of those micr-brittle stars too.

 

[hebbah]

I looked up the peanut worm but it doesn't look anything like the worm I have...can you tell I really want it to be a bristle star ??? :) In any case it seems like it won't do any harm!

 

[reeffreak]

Medusa worms perhaps?They come in many sizes,color and do have a a crown around the head area.Google ''medusa worm'' and see if any of the pictures resemble what you have.

Detrivores,reef safe btw.

 

[hebbah]

I looked up the Medusa worm but it doesn't look at all like the one I have. It does have the bushy thing at the front but not as big as this thing has. It is also very even in diameter not thicker and thinner at different parts.

 

[Bifferwine]

The vast majority of worms you get as hitch hikers are harmless, so I wouldn't worry about it. They're not like crabs, where most of them are not reef safe.