Established system, draining sump and replacing with all new rock?

[Passedyouby]

Good morning all!

Okay- so this was my first tank and I realized impatience does NOT hold a place in this hobby! When starting my tank I bought a few used live rocks out of my LFS sump in and effort to seed my tank with coraline, kickstart my cycling, and introduce pods into the system. Being an extreme novice I vividly remember saying to the fish store guy "grab that filthy one at the bottom"!

While this SEEMED like a good idea I realized a couple months later this probably wasnt a good idea, but I havent seen a negative so NBD.

Fast forward to now. I always dip my corals, remove all plugs, and go over every skeleton with a microscope looking for hitch hikers. My DT is pest free (except for some stubborn algea!), but when digging through my refugium the other day I pulled out a handful of chaeto and found DOZENS of bristle worms!!!! It was a nasty little surprise. While carefully searching a bit deeper I found some sort of slug and some stars, burning sure theres a lot more mixed in there.


Now, I would LOVE to 100% drain the sump and start over with new rock in the sump to hopefully prevent the spread into my DT. Would I regret this? Is it possible to start a sump over and not lose your DT livestock?

Added info- my fuge is a little gross and I would live the chance to clean it anyway, this would just be a little deeper than planned.
Tank is custom, but approx 50gal. Sump is custom but holds about 20gal water. Livestock is pretty basic. Small CUC. Pair of clowns, firefish, cardinal, royal gamma, scooter blenny. Decent coral collection but nothing too fancy, mostly LPS, a Scolly, elegance, meat coral, etc. I am battling a case of GHA currently.

 

[JonoB]

Just making sure we are clear, you are thinking about draining everything and get new rock because of some bristle worms?

Bristle worms aren't bad. They aren't fun to touch, but they do a good job cleaning up the tank. IMO its going to be near impossible to keep some of that stuff out of your tank, no matter how hard you try.

I guess the b biggest question is, why would you want them gone in the first place?

Would you regret it? I would think probably. You have what seems like an established system, if nothing is wrong other than seeing some bristle worms, I think you would definitely regret it.

Side note: if they are in your sump they are in your DT

 

[Passedyouby]

Thanks for the reply! My fear is less about the bristle worms, more about the other nasty guys that are most likely in there as well. I mean, I took 5 of the dirtiest, muck covered, piecing of rock out of a LFS! Lol. Sounds like a terrible idea hahah.

 

[Passedyouby]

As for in my DT- there is zero live rock in my DT, it's all custom shaped using 2 part epoxy. This means there is isn't an internal network for bristle worms to successfully hide and I wouldn't be shocked if there weren't any in the DT! Maybe I'm totally wrong here?

Again, the key here isn't bristle, it's more about what else can migrate to the DT over time and hurt my corals? Am I over thinking this fear?

 

[JRoyals]

Bristles will hide in the substrate if there is nothing else to hide in, IMHO