dirtied with lil creatures pls help

I recently switch to dirt on my 20L a month ago still no shrimp but I added a few plants. I used miracle organic, topped with gravel, and after a week or so I started seeing copepods, nemotodes, and tiny white worms. Any idea how i can get rid of them before I add my shrimp. I'm seeing thousands of them swimming in tank, crawling in the glass. I know fishes eat them but I wanna completely remove them because it infected 2 of my other tanks and my tetra fishes don't seem to eat them in on my 40gallon and the other is a 90g cichlid rock tank all the fish are too big to eat them. I don't really wanna start over again on all my tanks, has anyone here succesfully got rid of them?

"note to self don't use the same net" :(

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Permalink Reply by Sin the conqueror on May 18, 2012 at 9:39pm

soooo whats the problem with them? are they hurting the tank any?

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Permalink Reply by Robert Jango on May 18, 2012 at 10:18pm

There small white worms are called Dera worms. (I think that's how you spell it) They're completely harmless along with the copepods. Some people breed these worms for fish food! There's probably some nasty chemical that will kill them but I would just get something that eats them. Also check out the podcast on Aquarimax.com. about dera worms. The couple that runs this site will help you if you send you're question. He's a professional zoologist and lifetime fishkeeper and won't give you some jerk-off answer.

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Permalink Reply by Sin the conqueror on May 18, 2012 at 11:01pm

ive had both the worms and MANY copepods and i actually try to acquire more good micro organisms in my tanks but its really hard. i have worms as well as many other small organisms in my tanks and i dont do anything about them. just give it time and they'll eventually die down when their food source runs low or when your shrimp start picking at them.