Habitat - Outdoor :: worms in my filter media...

[bluedragoon85]

I decided to give my outdoor biological filter a clean today (every 2 weeks). as soon as I opened it up I noticed the media was full of tiny red worms. Red worms all over the place. On the sponge media, and the biological media. It was also all covered up by some red powdery slightly gunky stuff. I cleaned the sponges but left the biological media be since this might be beneficial growth? I really don't know, but it was quite a site. I tried to clean the sponges as good as I could but I couldn't get rid of all the worms, they were pretty stuck in there. So, my question is, is this good? Is this part of the biological part of the filtration cycle? or is this just a plague. I'm guessing good since it seems worms eat waste (turtle poop) and propagate good bacteria. I have some pics, but I haven't been able to upload them 4 some odd reason =/. I will post them as soon as I can. Thanks ^^

EDIT: Finally got it to work, here are the pics.



Look closely and you can see the worms O.O

[jozzep]

Is this from a pond?
Don’t be alarmed if you find little red worms in your filter material. They are nothing but harmless blood worms, the larvae of the midge fly. They are a very natural occurrence in the pond and, although they aren’t very attractive, are okay to feed your fish. After all, once freeze-dried, this blood worm becomes what marketers call "Tubifex Worms". They’re packaged and sold in pet supply stores as a fish delicacy.

Oh, and don’t start measuring how "dirty" your water is by how many worms are in your filter. Blood worms are found in "clean" water.

[bluedragoon85]

Thanks for the reply ^^

Is this from a pond?

Yes, this is an outdoor pond. It's just a small 125 G preformed pond in which I got my 2 turtles in. They are aprox. 3 inches in shell length. Here is my pond.

I don't have any fish in my pond, so I guess my turtles get an occasional treat here and there. However, I was wondering, do they attribute to cleaner water by breaking down waste that finds it's way into the filter? If so, that's cool, and I believe that red gunky stuff is beneficial bacteria?

[jameshermanto]

thx for the information, this good for me for the future steps ^_^