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flatworm exit

Kremis

Kremis

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just found out I had flatworms in my 20 gallon frag tank (dont wanna be spreading these around) I guess six line wasnt really doing its job... anyone have any experience using flatworm exit? from reading around I understand that the toxins from the dead flatworms can poison the tank. right now the current plan is to take out all frags and dip them to kill off any flatworms on them, and then treat tank w/ flatworm exit while the frags are out of the tank (avoid my corals dying while still killing all flatworms on them) and then add in the flatworm exit. once the flatworms die, add carbon and do huge wc (only a 20 gallon so no big deal really) what does everyone think about this?
 
What I did is to make a small siphon out of acrylic tubing and air line tube. After about 15mins, the worms start dying and float up mostly in chains (don't know why / what connect them together, but they come out in strings), use the siphon to take out as many as you can from the water column. Also run your flow on your highest setting so the dead worms go into the filter / sock and you can collect them here as well.
 
Assuming these are the reddish/brown flatworms, because those are the only flatworms Flatworm Exit will kill, not the acropora eating ones. That said, I've used it myself a few times, and yeah siphon out as many as you can, what I did was use a hose with a fine mesh sock (not felt) tied to the bottom in the sump, then I could spend as much time as possible siphoning out as many as possible. Do this when your lights are all on their brightest since those guys are photosynthetic and love the light, so it'll be easiest to pull them out. Try to get every single one you can see to reduce the total amount in the tank. Then when you dose your FWE, I'd probably dose 25% more than what is recommended, empty your mesh sock contraption and be ready to siphon ones that pop up in the water column, one thing I noticed is that many had a stringy attachment to rocks so they kind of floated up. Depending upon how red your water changes would dictate how much of a water change you might need, or more to the point how soon you should do it. You can always pour tank water into a white bucket and look at the bottom to gauge how "unclear" the water is, do your big WC, if you have a 20g frag tank I'd do a 10g WC at a minimum, but add the carbon after so that it doesn't get saturated as quickly, let that run and you should be fine. Repeat the procedure in a week to get any stragglers that might still be around, and it probably wouldn't hurt to keep the lights off for a few days so any flatworms that are still around don't regenerate via photosythesis (your corals will be fine.

There really is no reason pull corals out and dip them though, if anything the toxins will be worse off for fish than for the corals.
 
i dont think they are acro eatoing, i dont have/ever had any acros in that tank, so it should work. thanks for the replies! i think i wont dip the corals and just treat.
 
20 Gallon frag tank? If it was me, it's small enough that I'd consider storing the frags in a bucket of known good water (from DT) after dipping them with a heater and airstone for a day or two. I'd drain and disinfect the frag tank (with vinegar prolly). Then just add live rock and water from the DT after the 20G was done drying. Put the frags back in....dip again if you want to be especially cautious.
 
RandyC said:
20 Gallon frag tank? If it was me, it's small enough that I'd consider storing the frags in a bucket of known good water (from DT) after dipping them with a heater and airstone for a day or two. I'd drain and disinfect the frag tank (with vinegar prolly). Then just add live rock and water from the DT after the 20G was done drying. Put the frags back in....dip again if you want to be especially cautious.
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too many frags and too much hassle for me in my opinion, plus it would kill off all the pods and other stuff, and I have a six line that may jump out during the process of me trying to catch him, and he could end up in places where I cant get him.
 
Kremis said:
too many frags and too much hassle for me in my opinion, plus it would kill off all the pods and other stuff, and I have a six line that may jump out during the process of me trying to catch him, and he could end up in places where I cant get him.
Click to expand...

To each their own. My preference would be that if I was aiming to get rid of a pest, I'd want to be sure that it was gone. Since it's a reasonably small tank and I'm assuming there's not a ton of rock or substrate, I think cleaning the tank is the best way. Flatworm eXit is no guarantee. People have used it and still have flatworms (though they live in smaller numbers for now). Pods and other stuff can come from the other tank's live rock.

If you drain the water to leave an inch, catching the six-line shouldn't be a problem.
 
I had some flatworms at one point ( white head, brown body, forked tail ). They were listed as cautious on some website ( vs safe or dangerous ). I bought a sapphire damsel and it gobbled all of them up
 
I just treated w/ flatworm exit a few hours ago, siphoned out most (resulted in a 30 percent WC) dosed again to make up for the WC then left it alone for an hour. came back and turned back on skimmer and added carbon. Unfortunately my six line happened to jump out today (before I started messing with the tank) :( but I dont see any more flatworms!! Will treat again later for the ones that hatch from eggs. not sure about what type, but not AEFW because these ones died off. all my corals were ok, except some zoa frags closed up and birdsnest not looking great, but will probably be better tomorrow.
 
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