weird orange flakes in my tank HELP!

So I noticed a few orange flakes in my tanks a few weeks ago didnt really think anything of it now i am becoming kind of worried because i see it all over my rock  i dont know what the heck it is. is it harmful should i be worried?? idk what it is its orange, thin flakes, and its all over my rocks i have quite a bit of zoas polyps and such should i be worried please help me! i am pretty new to saltwater and want to know what this stuff is! any advice is much appreciated! it hasnt really spread onto my polyps and zoas but its all around the rock that their on.  I might be crazy but it seems also like it moves when i take it out idk just wanted to add all i think i know about it again any advice is much appreciated!
Natasha /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default/emoticons/smile.gif

 

pics would help

 

Yea can't realy tell you much without some pics.

 

alright i'll try to post some but i cant get a good pic lol i'll post the ones i have!

 

I have seen small orange / pink looking things on the bottom of my tank before only a few here and there they are usually gone in a hour or so.
I think they are the skeleton of a shrimp shedding. this probaly not much help.
like they say a pic is worth a _____ I don't know how many words.

 

might be flat worms

 

i was kinda thinking flatworms too

 

are flatworms and bristle worms the same thing? they are kinda orangish brown?

 

hahaha i think you guys might be right if so whats a good way to treat that?

 

also i just dont have a good picture of the orange things but they do move and they took over my rock if theyre are any treatments please let me know thanks! i am going to be taking some pictures tomorrow and i'll post them!

 

is this what you have
http://images.google.com/images?q=red+planeria&biw=1362&bih=560

 

Agreed, sounds just like planaria/flatworms. Look on your soft corals, such as mushrooms, any zoas, but they also will sit on lps such as frogspawn. There is a product called Flatworm Exit, but its rather pricey at ~$20 for a tiny bottle. Better maintainance can help get rid of them, check your parameters and make sure nitrates and phosphates are ok. I've also read keeping your alkalinity up in the 8.5-6 area helps. Some say certain wrasses eat them, I dunno though, probably one of those hit or miss things whether they will or not.

 

yellow corry wrasse will decimate em. no hit or miss, its all hit.

 

I have heard that a six line will eat them.

 

oops, meant to say pH ~ 8.6, but that was probably obvious /DesktopModules/ActiveForums/themes/_default//emoticons/smile.gif

 

i have a sixline wrasse in the biocube idk if he has been eating them or not we do weekly water changes all the time but we cant really take too much water out of the 29 g biocube so far my zoas and everything look fine we have a couple mushrooms in there but they look okay too thank you for all the advice!! i'll keep people posted and they do look like that fishbrain i am thinking theyre babies cuz they look alot smaller??

 

Use a piece of airline and siphon as many as you can out when you do your water change. This will reduce their numbers.

 

That's pretty much what I do. I use a turkey baster to blow them off the rocks, then siphon off the sand. It keeps them pretty well in check. But a predator like a wrasse would be better to eliminate them. Hung at Sea of Marvel puts a yellow damsel in all of his reef tanks to keep the flatworms under control. 

 

I had tens of thousands of them when I started looking for a soln to the planaria problem. Every inch of rock was covered with planaria layered ontop of eachother maybe even a hundred thousand in a 75. I got a small h.. melenurus wasse and they entirely dissappaered in about 2 weeks. I still have them in a biocube that's attached to my main tank so I'm certain he gets a feeding of them occassionally. 4 years later he's my fav fish and about 6" long, fat and happy, and tough as nails!