Getting Rid of Flatworms

[jaa1456]

I started to experiment with a few things at my house. I set up a 10 gallon nano, with zoas and softies. I had flatworms in my main tank and I asked myself what else would get rid of them besides the normal solutions offered, which include Flatworm Exit, wrasses and assorted fish, and besides turning the lights off for days. So I intentional put flatworms into the 10 gallon. I started dosing the tank with MAG. I have had success in the past with MAG getting rid of Bryopsis. Well I figured its an experiment tank lets try it. Sure enough after 2 months I can not find one flatworm in the tank, nor can I find any pods either. The softies seem unaffected but some zoas melted away. The shrooms seem alright also. The MAG levels are probably and I'm guessing in the 2000ppm range. I can not find a kit that goes past 1700. I'm going to set up my 3 gallon nano and try it again to see if it was that or maybe just a coincidence.

 

[mr_X]

overdosing many things will kill living creatures. you don't even know how much magnesium you have in the tank. it's hardly a reef keeping discovery!
how about trying to overdose them with air? it's easy and a sure fire way to rid yourself of flatworms. just drain all the water from the tank and wait about 2 weeks. it's a guaranteed cure. LOL.

 

[ming]

From my experience, Flatworm eXit will kill them, but only if you dose enough, do it multiple times because there are usually a few that don't get finished from the initial dose.
I rather stick with that method then overdosing on mag.. as that will probably destroy a lot of my corals as well

 

[Mattl22]

I have flatt worms am waiting for fwe to come I ordered it from aquarium guys . Com. It has been 2 weeks I haven't gotten it yet anybody else have problems with that site? Anyway is there anything I can do in the mean time to try and atleast dimminiish them every day I've been using a turkey blaster to blow them off the rocks and using a paper towel to blot them up off the sand and glass but everyday I kill like hundreds the next day there r just as manny looking for advice I'm new to the hoppy I have a 34 gal solana with a current t5 lighting fixture the water quality is good the mag. Is a littel high everything else is great the lights ru 6 hrs a day

 

[jadakiss]

go look for a thread that masterswimmer put, that thread helped me out.

 

[18oreefer]

Matt, get a hose and run it to your sump. Have it pour into a filter sock into the sump, and suck out as many as you can. You should do this anyway so you dont poison the tank, with there bodily fluids, when you kill them all with fwe. Anyway youll see just read the directions with fwe.

 

[motortrendz]

also the fwe does not kill the eggs so thats y u need to red dose after a few days..

 

[jaa1456]

Yes, I tried the FW exit and had them back in 2 days. First I saw a few then there were more everyday. The FW exit even followed to the T on the directions caused me to lose several zoa colonies as well as heads off 2 hammers and off my frogspawn. I even changed the carbon in one of the filters. I ran 2 filters with twice the amount of carbon. There must have been a lot of FW's hidden in the rocks I didn't see. As for the MAG if my calculations are correct MR.X it should be right around 2000. And as mentioned all my other corals are fine as well as the hermits and lettuce nudi that are in there. The only other affect I have seen are the pods are gone. There are no fish in the tank so that part i'm not sure of. I'm thinking the same impurity that is given credit to killing bryopsis had the same affect on the FW, seeing how they feed through photosynthesis just like plants. I know corals feed this way also but I have had no problems. I am know starting small water changes to get the MAG back down. And MR.X of course if you take something that lives in the water out it will die. My 2 year old nephew knows that.