SkiCurtis August 30, 2009 August 30, 2009 OK so my flatworms are way worse than I thought. they are everywhere.I have white ones and red ones! I pulled a few frags out and they are loaded with them. I was ready to do the flatworm treatment but I am now very apprehensive maybe a better word would be paranoid. I have a 240 with sump probably more like 300 total. This is my display and have a ton of money in corals/frags /fish and everything is doing very very well. I guess I afraid of a total system crash. I do have 80 gallons of water ready for the water change. I have new carbon in my reactor and was going to barrow the Bulk reef supply 2 chamber reactor from my grow out and fill that up with 2 carbons. so please help me out. I would take some pics but i do not have a close up lens, trust me they are everywhere and there is allot of real estate in my 240. please help with someone who has had this massive problem. I should give kick myself in as# for waiting this long. Thanks Curtis
Jon Lazar August 30, 2009 August 30, 2009 If you really have a massive infestation, you should work on siphoning them out for a while before using a treatment like Flatworm Exit. Siphon them out as part of your water changes. Or if you don't have to do water changes but still want to siphon, just run the siphon hose into a filter sock or a low-micron filter in your sump. You can siphon all day that way. Jon
zygote2k August 30, 2009 August 30, 2009 maybe a longshot solution here- set up a smaller tank and transfer your most prized colonies to it and treat with EXIT. keep them off the main system. transfer your fish and non flatworm infested corals to another tank. thoroughly clean main tank with whatever strategy you have in mind and check for repeat infestations for next few months.
lanman August 30, 2009 August 30, 2009 If you really have a massive infestation, you should work on siphoning them out for a while before using a treatment like Flatworm Exit. Siphon them out as part of your water changes. Or if you don't have to do water changes but still want to siphon, just run the siphon hose into a filter sock or a low-micron filter in your sump. You can siphon all day that way. Jon +1 for the siphon into the sump... that sounds like a great idea! Just set up a filter sock holder, siphon through the filter sock. Every 5,000 flatworms or so - stop and clean the filter sock. You don't want to overflow the filter sock. If it is only numbers that are causing problems (the flatworms aren't eating the corals), this will help you keep them under control until nature takes its course, or your wrasses develop a taste for them. And if after a while, the problem is obviously not going away - then you should be able to siphon most out, so that EXIT! won't cause a major problem. In fact - the non-stop siphon is such a great idea, that I have another use for it already. Not to mention wondering why I didn't think of it myself. DOH!! I mean - it will even 'equalize' itself - keeping the water levels constant. bob
SkiCurtis August 30, 2009 Author August 30, 2009 Thanks for the ideas. 5,000 yea I might have even more. I will do the siphon thing it just seems like it take forever.but i know i have to reduce the number. it is amazing when I do a fresh water dip on the frogspawn and hammer how many just off. what other corals can I fresh water dip? I have so many in my mixed reef.I know the toxin would be through the roof if I treated today! Curtis
Sikryd August 30, 2009 August 30, 2009 I would have 200-300g on hand before I tried using Exit - even after the siphoning out. Otherwise it is just a risk I wouldn't take. Its a lot easier to prepare now and do it right, then it is to freak out when things go south, which usually happens so far we are scrambling! The siphoning idea is great. I woulc probably do that for a few days, then do a full tank exit with 100% replacement water on hand just in case. I could change 75% right after the treatment, then the other 25% 2 days later, if not a little more, or another 25% a few days after that. Good luck - that sucks for sure. I QT everything, just cause of this. Its a pain, but a lot easier in the long run - I know its too late now, but I figured I would throw it out there since most of us don't QT until AFTER we have an issue. :(
Sikryd August 30, 2009 August 30, 2009 I have a 150g Rubbermaid and a 55g water change container if you want to borrow them. It looks like you are ~ an hour away.
lanman August 30, 2009 August 30, 2009 Thanks for the ideas. 5,000 yea I might have even more. I will do the siphon thing it just seems like it take forever.but i know i have to reduce the number. it is amazing when I do a fresh water dip on the frogspawn and hammer how many just off. what other corals can I fresh water dip? I have so many in my mixed reef.I know the toxin would be through the roof if I treated today!Curtis You don't really need the FW dip to get rid of most of them... if you can get the rock/coral out of the tank - just 'shake' them well in used tank water. Most of the flatworms will just fall off. I do some things to corals that I don't expect them to survive - but they do. Like taking a whole acro colony and putting it under fast-running tap water for a few seconds to knock off algae and anything else kind of gunking it up. Haven't killed one yet - but then I may just be lucky. I usually reserve the 'rough' treatments for corals that look like they are fading because of all the gunk in them. I just consider it a 'storm surge' treatment. bob
Sugar Magnolia August 30, 2009 August 30, 2009 You'll want to increase the dosage of FWE significantly and may need to do multiple treatments. I feel your pain, just on a smaller scale. http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=32060 Good luck!
SkiCurtis August 31, 2009 Author August 31, 2009 If you really have a massive infestation, you should work on siphoning them out for a while before using a treatment like Flatworm Exit. Siphon them out as part of your water changes. Or if you don't have to do water changes but still want to siphon, just run the siphon hose into a filter sock or a low-micron filter in your sump. You can siphon all day that way. Jon Wow John That idea worked very well and like you said you can do that as long as you want. I will continue to siphon all week and manually remove and then maybe will feal more confident about the treatment. I do not want any of my future posts to be headline "tank crash" Curtis
Jon Lazar August 31, 2009 August 31, 2009 Wow John That idea worked very well and like you said you can do that as long as you want. I will continue to siphon all week and manually remove and then maybe will feal more confident about the treatment. I do not want any of my future posts to be headline "tank crash"Curtis Curtis, Glad it's working out for you. I use the same technique to siphon algae and detritus off my rockwork. Jon
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