white worms in water column

It's probably just hydra or planaria. Once you start your water changes, they should disappear.

How did you do the fishless cycle? Did you use ammonia or something else? Did you keep the same substrate from before? (You rarely see things like this in tanks without waste...)

Once you do get your fish, feed minimal amounts until the tank is well established.

Minimizing waste will also aid in removing the hydra or planaria...

I tore the tank apart and it was a huge job, because I wanted to keep as much bacteria as possible....once I started, I could not stop. After a good clean up of all but the Rena, I added sand, rocks, wet dry sump (including some bio-stars from the Rena), and water and fired everything back up. Then I added 7ml of a 10% ammonia solution every 12 hours for 13 days and tested constantly. On day 14, everything zeroed out....but I will still wait another few days before adding fish. Just have never seen these wigglers before and have been keeping aquariums for 18 years. You just never see it all huh??

And yes... I think the "excess waste" was probably from the Rena. The planted set up was a couple of years old and while impressive, took a LOT of almost daily effort. The Rena was really loaded with joo-joo. I did want to keep as much bact. as possible so I did not clean it at all-- just let it sit while switching over and fired it right back up. As soon as the wigglers appeared I assumed it was from the Rena so I lightly cleaned it in aquarium water and the "worms" did decrease but not disappear.
Now that the cycle is going, I will begin some smallish water changes after the biggie to knock down the 50ppm nitrates. Thanks for the input!