white nasty worms (that sound so bad)

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this is what they look like, they are in our shrimp tank, and it's damn near impossible to clean the gravel. It's a 55 gal, there's baby amano's and red cherry's in there. we cleaned the gravel once, it took us over five hours to do 1/2 the tank because we had to get all the shrimp that were sucked out. we only put about a 1/4 a bucket of water in a five gal bucket and everytime we ended up scooping like 20 plus shrimp out. the shrimp are the sizes from . to __ at the max. It really sucks, so if you have any idea to save us the time let me know.

Your parameters must be in line with the production of shrimp. This is what I would do. Which in no way guarantees it will work nor will I take any responsibility for the loss of your population.

What kind of filter do you have, by the way? Turn it off. before you start cleaning. If it is an AC (AquaClear) and you use just the sponges, rinse them out in the water from the mother tank in a bucket until they are clear. Then rinse the rest of the filter in tap and clean all of it's components until it looks like new. Including the impeller.

If you want to preserve your population, start siphoning your shrimp into a net and put them into to a holding tank with water from the mother tank. Once you feel you have have siphoned enough shrimp to continue their reproduction, sacrifice the rest and siphon the hell out of your substrate. Do not siphon more than 50% of your total capacity. Refill the mother tank with water you have aerated and dechlorinated for 24 hours prior to starting the process of cleaning the mother tank. Net out your shrimp from the holding tank and discard the water.

Keep up a maintenance schedule that allows less feeding and siphoning of the gravel in thirds of the total amount of at each cleaning. (Water change)

Hope this helps HTH