Flatworm Exit Discussion

[ohaverd]

OK, i'm a boob... I let flatworms get out of control in my DT.  I've ordered FWE from the interwebz and while it is on its way, please post here your experience with FWE, and any do's and dont's that may help me out here.

 

Here is my plan:

 

I've waited too long probably and there is going to be a ton of toxins released by these little Mother McMuffins when they die,

 

 

treatment on a 110gal tank.

-syphon as many as I can before hand

-drop a couple of large bags of carbon in the sump 

-dose 110 drops of FWE

-syphon as many dead flat worms as possible during the treatment. 

-after about 4 to 6 hours do 33gal water change.

 

thoughts on the plan?

[Squishie89]

I will try and explain my experience with FWE. I cannot say anyone else will have the results I did, I may have done things wrong, I may have done things right, I did what I did and it is in the past and I would prefer not to hear about what I may have done wrong.

 

I purchased a canister filter just for this to be able to run the carbon as efficiently as possible as my fish and inverts mean a lot to me. The first dose I did it was either double or triple the recommended dose. Quite a few died, but not all of them. I started running the carbon after 20 minutes or so, no distress from critters evident. I also did a WC. Over the course of the next 2 weeks I did a few more doses to try and kill them all, as I knew they were laying eggs, most of these doses were 1.5x amount. What would happen after about 30-40 minutes of dosing my brittle stars would come out of the rocks and go on the sand or glass, this happened every time. It did not matter how soon I started running the carbon. I eventually gave up as my flatworms are the "okay" kind, just annoying. After this I noticed my pod population was gone, and I used to have amphipods COVERING my fake reef at night, and it went down to maybe ~10 individuals, who died off. I had other critters die after this, an urchin and a large turbo snail (who was doing fine, the urchin was sick so I put his death as disease). I theorized that due to my seeing the brittle stars being affected by the liquid, that maybe it is not as reef safe as they say it is, and that maybe my tank was thrown out whack. So I started putting bottle bacteria in the tank to get things to stabilize. And things did. All of my fish survived, never showed any stress. Other than the brittle stars showing distress, no other critters showed distress.

How I currently deal with my FW's is they congregate on the glass, so I can use my mag float and run it across the glass and it picks up 85% of the FW's and I can take it out and run it under water in the sink to get rid of them. I do this when I notice the population seems to be a bit high. I also try and remove egg packs when I see them or can.

[taiscici]

I would follow up with another treatment after 3-4 days, and another one after 1 week.

[hlem]

I would follow up with another treatment after 3-4 days, and another one after 1 week.

 

Yes, follow the instruction, and do a few follow ups.  it worked for me in a 40gallon breeder. 

[Huly]

Now is this for Acropora flatworms?  Do you have any sun corals or sensitive corals?  Will that make a difference?

[Cliff Puckstable]

Run your skimmer with the collection cup off while you're treating the tank. Someone here lost most of his livestock recently using this product.

[Cliff Puckstable]

Sorry it was a different product. My b

[ohaverd]

Now is this for Acropora flatworms?  Do you have any sun corals or sensitive corals?  Will that make a difference?

No really sensitive corals, and these are not the AEFW, they are the rusty red colored ones... not really a threat to anything, just really ugly and annoying.

[steveoutlaw]

Siphon out as many as you can before treating. Make sure you have a filter sock to catch any that go into the overflow. Have the siphon going when you treat to get the dead floaters.

[AlanM]

Last time I was at congressional aquarium they had a product that they apparently use on their coral tanks called "Flatworm Solution" by a company called Precision Solutions.  They swore by it and all professed to be amazed at how they dosed right into the tank and the worms all fell off. 

 

I took two messages from that.  1) Congressional tanks are apparently full of flatworms. 2) Flatworm Solution seemed to work for them.

[OldReefer]

Siphon out as many as you can before treating. Make sure you have a filter sock to catch any that go into the overflow. Have the siphon going when you treat to get the dead floaters.

 

+1 on filter sock and siphoning. This is a great product. You can easily dose twice the recommended level with no ill effects. Use lots of carbon and plan to re-treat in a few days.

 

I have also ignored infestations of flatworms and they eventually just faded away. This is one of the easier plagues in the hobby.

[countryboy]

I had the same problem and used few and had great results but I used twice the dosage and did it every three days followed by a 25 % water change. It took three or four times before I got rid of them. I vacuumed out the dead ones while I did the water change

[countryboy]

meant to say few, flat worm exit. by the way this was in a reef tank with no ill effects

[steveoutlaw]

Has anyone who used this had any ill effects with SPS?

[ohaverd]

i've been doing a lot of research around the web, havent heard any ill effects on any types of coral from the medication.  Its always the same thing, that if you have a large infestation, they will die and release toxins in the water.  The toxins can kill anything living in your tank if you let it sit.

[Origami]

This thread reminded me of lutz123's situation a while back. She had a fairly severe allergic reaction to something shortly after reaching into a tank that she had treated with FWE. It's apparently rare (since we don't hear stories like this often), but maybe there's a lesson here: Glove up.

 

http://www.wamas.org/forums/topic/41809-salifert-fwe-flatworm-exit-ingredients/

[zygote2k]

I have used Saliferts FWE on 3 different tank with different levels of "success".

1) My tank- used double dose the first time. didn't use carbon until 3 hours after dosing. killed all FW's and have never seen them since.

2) Alex's tank. used double dose and killed all FW's and 3 large fish. never saw another FW. Used carbon after 2 hours.

3)CORE tank. used double dose 1st time and carbon after 2 hours. FW's came back after 6 months. Used 2nd time at double dose, same results. Used triple dose, still there. Never lost or stressed out a fish.