aquarium pests

Question
How long has your tank been set up?
3 years

How big?
55 gallon

What type of fish?
How many?
2 angle fish
2 gouramis
3 cory catfish

Type of filter?
Penguin 330 bio-wheels
Whisper 30-60

pH = 7.0
ammonia = 0ppm
nitrite = 0ppm

How often do you change water?
Under normal circumstances, I would do a 20% water change once a month.
However, my tank developed some annoying pests last year. They looked like white little worms squiggling around in the water. They were so tiny and thin that they look like a single thread of carpet fuzz.
I thought they were gone until last month when I saw them again, so for the last month I've been doing water changes once a week.
The tank has started developing some brown algae looking stuff on the glass so I added algae destroyer to the water.
After doing this, I noticed that my fish were acting funny. When I took a look inside the tank, there were thousands of those worms coming out of everywhere.
Then, while I was taking a closer look at them, I noticed little white tiny tiny bugs crawling on the glass...
I'm mortified... What could this be? What do I need to do to rid this problem?
I added copersafe to the water. The pests are still thriving.
Now, one of my angle fish has a single, small, round, brown ball looking thing on one of her fins. Don't know what that is either...
If you could help me get through this, I would greatly, greatly appreciate it.
I have done everything that Petsmart has told me to do, and nothing is working.
I'm afraid my tank is going to go down hill...
The last advise that I got was to put the fish in a bucket and bleach the entire tank, filters, gravel, and decor (which I did not do)...
I'm afraid I've been following bad advise this whole time.
Thank you for your time and any advice you have for me.

Kaelora  

Answer
Hi Kaelora;

Bad advice is exactly what you did get. The critters are totally harmless to your fish. They are a symptom of excess waste from overfeeding. I've had them too and the answer is very simple...starve them out by feeding less and cleaning more. Water changes should be done every week all the time and a vacuuming every one or two weeks as normal aquarium maintenance. There is no chemical that will kill those suckers either. They will even survive a bleach treatment. Before I knew what they were I tried that too. I was shocked to see them survive. SHOCKED. I fed less and cleaned more and they slowly faded away. It doesn't hurt to "fast" your fish for 3 or 4 days at first too. They will be just fine and will not starve to death. It will help you get a "head start" on cleaning up the crud.

You may notice that the critters look more numerous at first when you start cleaning. There are the same number of them, they are just exposing themselves more because they are desperate for food.

Avoid using algae killing chemicals. They make the fish lethargic, unwilling to breed and fish stop growing and thriving because the treatments are a controlled amount of poison. Your improved cleaning schedule and reduced feedings will eliminate the "fertilizer" that helps the algae grow. All the way around, it's just best for your fish and the tank.

I hope all goes well...

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins