Water Gardening: “worms” in my waterfall? , 1 by sunnyg

sunnyg wrote:
I am pretty new at ponding, and pulled string algae off my waterfall “steps” a couple days ago. Then, I noticed a few very thin tiny worms on my hands. After lots and lots of handwashing, I went back outside and discovered that there are a ton of “worms” attached to my waterfall. They seem to like the moving water, and were apparently hiding under all the string algae. It looks like there are two different types of worms/larvae. One type is larger and black, and after a bunch of googling I think they might be blackfly larvae. This link has a pretty good pic…can anyone confirm?

http://www.fishpondinfo.com/insect2.htm#black

I still haven’t a clue what the smaller brownish “worms” are, but there are tons of them! I hope that both kinds of worms/larvae are visible in the pics I will post…the smaller ones are a bit hard to make out. Can anyone help me with an ID? I am most concerned with whether they are harmful to humans, fish, or frogs. I am also interested in any ideas of how to manage them, or whether I should just leave them alone. The fish cannot eat them since they are up on the waterfall, and the frogs have left them alone so far. Thanks in advance for any insight!