Guest cbo November 11, 2002 Share November 11, 2002 Well, let me stress that as far as I know the flatworms pose no problem for the reef tank, aside from an asthetic one. The flatworms I am talking about are the ones pez posted a picture of in his "red flatworm" post about the ones he got on a coral from CC. I have had these little buggers, not to be confused with red acropora bugs, since I setup my first reef tank, a six gallon eclipse in feb. 2002. I was tired of seeing them all over the place so I did some searching on reef central. It seems people have been trying all kinds of things from an ich medication to a small shrimp from the texas coast with differing results. For various reasons, cost, results, time, etc.. I decided to try the medication route, which while the most dangerous seemed to provide the "highest probability of success". The medication mentioned is Greenex by aquatronics, an ich med for saltwater tanks containing " malachite green and quinine hydrochloride. May be used with caution, with some invertebrates but not in reef aquaria". The posts in reef central discribed using a slightly under strength dose and promptly removing with carbon. Now I am not a fan of throwing things in your tank, as a matter of fact, this is the only thing other than supplements (very little of those even) that I have put in the tank. And as I am setting up a larger system that I will probably want to move things back and forth with this tank, I wanted to try and solve this problem before the new system goes online. The tank. 6 gallon eclipse with no biowheel just the filter pad, 2 13W power compact lights, small powerhead in tank, heater, no skimmer, 1 gallon water change every 2 weeks, drip kalkwaser every other day to replace evaporation. The inhabitants. Ocellarous clown Pepermint shrimp Button coral which came on live rock 3 corals from prevyet as follows: green finger(Sinularia sp.) Star polyps (Clavularia sp.) toadstool (sarcophyton sp.) birdsnest fraq won at my first WAMAS meeting in march (I think from gatortailale) Monitopora digitata free from michaelq also at march meeting ricordia from TRT Green striped mushroom red mushrooms Live sand from michaelq, with lots of mini brittle stars, bristle worms, small starfish(not brittle) tons of pods, worms, lipets?, some macro algae, spagetthi algae, nassarius snalls, asteria snails, scarlet hermit The procedure. Saturday 2PM: I removed the eclipse carbon filter pad, which i usually leave in for 4 months or so. I added 4 drops of greenex, turning the water slightly green. The ricordia and mushrooms almost immediatly retracted. No noticable impact on flatworms. green finger(Sinularia sp.) retracts slightly Saturday 4PM: Some of the flatworms appear to be hanging off the rock and walls, cant really tell. Ricordia and mushrooms look bad, everthing else fine, green finger(Sinularia sp.) still retracted. Saturday 6PM: cant take it any longer, put in new carbon filter pad. ricordia looks bad, mushrooms look worse, green finger(Sinularia sp.) still the same. Saturday 10PM: Did a 1.5 gallon water change, siphoning as many flatworms as I can, they have definatly been hit by the medication. Mushrooms and ricordia look bad. Sunday morning: what a differnece a day makes, ricordia looks partially recovered, mushrooms still lagging, but everything else looks great. And most importantly... NO FLATWORMS, hurrah. Sunday night: Ricordia looks fully recovered, just the same as before the treatmeant, mushrooms still look a little woozy, not fully expanded or upright, but still better. Cant find a flatworm anywhere. Snails, shrimp and crab look fine. Still see lots of pods, brittle stars, starfish, worms etc.. They all look fine. I have not checked the tank today, monday. But will post any new developments as I see them. Just wanted to share this experiance. cbo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind November 11, 2002 Share November 11, 2002 "I have not checked the tank today, monday" It's afternoon and you have not looked at your tank yet! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cbo November 11, 2002 Share November 11, 2002 I am at work. I had to stay home with the kids on friday, so I am working the holiday to make it up. The lights dont come on til 10AM. Plus I am just a slacker! cbo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eddi November 11, 2002 Share November 11, 2002 Holiday? Is today a holiday? And you actually have it off? Must be nice.... :D I will be very interested in your update. I have a major flatworm infestation. It started after I added a coral from the CC, but I can't say for certainty whether that was the catalyst. My fault for not checkng more carefully. I have a 125 gallon reef; has anyone tried the greenex route in a larger tank? Eddi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cbo November 12, 2002 Share November 12, 2002 Monday evening update, Checked the tank a couple of times late this afternoon and evening. Only spot of trouble seems to be this one green striped mushroom, it is still not expanding fully. All the other mushrooms have come back great though. I will keep posting results as warrented, still no flatworms also. If anyone else thinks about doing this I have plenty of med. left, only used 4 drops and it is a big container, plus it was ~$8. I think I would also setup a quarentine tank and put the more sensitive stuff like mushrooms etc. in there for the duration of the treatment. A freshwater dip could be used to prevent any flatworms from hitchhiking on the transfered specimen cbo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pez November 12, 2002 Share November 12, 2002 Just to let everyone know, the flatworms never got into my tank. However, now I have the little red acro bugs I'm not 100% sure where they came from, but the most likely suspect is the frag I got from CC. I added three things to my tank within the last few weeks and the CC frag was one of them. I'm pretty sure the LR from Paul was not infected and the coral from MS was not infected (or at least it is not currently infected). So that only leaves the acro frag from CC. The moral of the story - buyer beware. -T Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coral Hind November 12, 2002 Share November 12, 2002 Glad to here it worked! If the stripped shroom doesn't make it let me know I'll get you another. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcjm November 13, 2002 Share November 13, 2002 I got some white flat worms before. I believe I got from someone in this forum but I am not positive. Luckily it did not infect my display tank. I had to tear down couple of my 10G tanks to get rid of them completely. We all need to watch what we put into out tank no matter the source. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chideloh November 14, 2002 Share November 14, 2002 cbo, Where are you located? I am interested in getting some from you. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cbo November 14, 2002 Share November 14, 2002 I live in springfield, VA about 5-10 min. from TRT. I am not going to the meeting this saturday, but I am trying to send some greenex to andreaj who is going to the meeting. I am trying to get some to Larry Granier who is probably going, but may not, if larry goes I will send some extra with him. If you live in VA you are more than welcome to stop by, if you do so tomarrow or sat. morning and are going to the meeting you could take some extra in for andreaj. Send me a PM if you want to cordinate meeting. cbo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chideloh November 15, 2002 Share November 15, 2002 cbo, sent you a PM. Thanks David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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