I haven't been a good Aquarist lately

[Guest vatbrew]

So, I have been through alot lately and haven't taken care of my 125 reef. I have flatworms and some red algae type stuff all over. So today I'm going to be treating the water with Flatworm exit and carbon. I have not done a water change in at least 6 months. I have prepared 20% new water. My salinity in the tank has dropped to 1.021. The corals are thriving beyond my belief and my 2 tangs, 2 clowns look very healthy. I would like to bring the salinity up, so I made the 20% new water 1.027. Is this a bad idea?

[ChrisS]

You'll want to bring the salinity back up very slowly. I'd do 10% water changes over several weeks each time just bringing up the salinity a point or two.

 

Also be careful when treating with FWE. The dieing flatworms will release a lot of toxin so you need to be prepared to siphon out as many as you can and do some large water changes. The fish and corals will be stressed from this so I wouldn't make any other changes until after they've had time to recover. There are several post on here and on reef central about FWE I'd so a search and read up on it if you haven't already. Some people even suggest moving fish to a QT while treating.

[jamesbuf]

Why not just add in a wrasse or two that will eat the flatworms? I added a Melanurus wrasse that took care of my growing bristle worm population. I've read that they are also good for keeping flatworms in control as well. I'm pretty sure a 6-line would do the same as well.

[lanman]

So, I have been through alot lately and haven't taken care of my 125 reef. I have flatworms and some red algae type stuff all over. So today I'm going to be treating the water with Flatworm exit and carbon. I have not done a water change in at least 6 months. I have prepared 20% new water. My salinity in the tank has dropped to 1.021. The corals are thriving beyond my belief and my 2 tangs, 2 clowns look very healthy. I would like to bring the salinity up, so I made the 20% new water 1.027. Is this a bad idea?

Read up on EXIT! FIRST - take care of your tank. Unless the flatworms are so bad that they are blanketing the corals (not likely, if your corals are doing well), it's not an emergency. Now... in the course of siphoning off water and adding new water with a higher salinity - suck as many of those flatworms out of there as possible. I would do as suggested - 10% water changes over several weeks, with a slight increase in alkalinity each week. 12.5 gallons of 1.027 water added to your tank won't bring it up a lot. Just a point or two. It is very important to get as many of the flatworms out of there as possible before treatment. The 6-line wrasse in my frag tank eats flatworms. Over several months, with my help siphoning some out - he completely eradicated them. Not all 6-lines seem to think of them as food, though.

 

Glad to hear your corals have survived and even thrived - and good luck on getting your tank back to looking the way you want it!

 

bob

[Rascal]

I agree. Hold of on the FWE if its not an emergency. Get your water quality back in line first, get a wrasse if you don't already have one, and then give it some time. It's possible the flatworms, like the nuisance algae, have only proliferated because of excess nutrients.

[discretekarma]

I know they are considered non reef safe but I've had an arrow crab for 6 months and he keeps the worms under control but doesn't seem to bother anything else.

[bigJPDC]

Hopefully you are using a refractometer for your measurements.

Only changing 10% might not even raise your salinity, even at 1.027. What would be better is a larger water change with something closer to your 1.021 - like 1.023. Even that might take two or three rounds to get to 1.023, then you can repeat with 1.025.