Need a lil HELP

[Aqualung]

I am getting these rust type spots on my rock and glass,
Are they harmful??
How did I get rid of it??
What is causing it??
Thanxxx Joey

 

[C8H10N402]

Hey Joey, dosent look like rust spots, more organic, maybe a macro coming in? another couple of weeks will tell.

 

[KathyC]

Those are flatworms.
We've had a number of good threads regarding flatworms latley.

Use the 'search' function at the top of the page and you should get a lot of good threads with suggestions on how to get rid of them.

 

[crox99]

Yep. They look like flatworms to me too. What type of corals do you have?

 

[mray]

Wow, good luck getting rid of them. They are a pain to deal with. If you decide to go with FWE, make sure you siphon every single one you see out for the next couple of days before treating the tank. Also if you treat the tank, remove every single invert. They will feel the effects from the treatment.

 

[Aqualung]

Now trhat we figured out it is Flatworms, How did they get here,something I put in the tank??I'd sure like to avoid this happening again..

 

[FREEZE]

you may have gotten it from something you bought - I got it once from a large rock with mushrooms I picked up. Their population increase can also a result of over feeding your fish. If I were you I would siphon out as many as you can and then go with Flatworm Exit treatment (FWE).

 

[Aqualung]

Just vacumed out about 90% of what I can see.. Before I treat the tank I'll Vacume for 3 or 4 days to get most of them out..I can see more already where I vacumed!!

 

[mray]

Don't rush this process. Keep siphoning them out for a week if not more. Trust me you don't want to dose your tank without getting rid of 99% of them first. FWE's purpose is to rid the ones you can't siphon out so don't be lazy, it can cost you your livestock. Good luck :approve:.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

I had a massive plague of FW's back in June, '05. I followed the routine I'm about to give you to the letter and I've been totally rid of them since. It is important to follow this routine completely.

I did not see any negative impact from the treatment other than my corals close up and take about two days to reopen. My brain corals took the longest to reopen, but they did and with no harmful effects to them.

GETTING RID OF FLATWORMS:
- Prepare enough RO/DI water to make enough saltwater for three 25% water changes within one week.

- Have a method for running carbon aggressively in your system. Running carbon passively in a filter bag in your sump is NOT considered aggressive. I am using an MRC Fluidized Media Chamber for carbon. A Phosban Reactor 150 will work fine also.

- The Flat Worm Exit is not toxic to your tanks inhabitants. However, like alrha mentioned above, the toxins released from the dead/dying FW's are toxic. With this in mind, it is better to add an overdose of FWE to your tank than to add too little.

- I have a 75 gallon tank, 15 fuge and about 10 gallons in my sump, for a total of ~ 100 gallons. I used five full bottles of FWE during the treatment on my system. I didn't use them all at once, but I did use them all during the one week of treatment.

Ok, time to get down to the nitty gritty of eliminating the dreaded FW.

- Three days before you are ready to treat your tank with the FWE, you must begin siphoning out as many FW's as possible manually. They do not grab hold of anything in your tank. They will release whatever slight grip they do have VERY easily. Take a siphon tube (vinyl tubing) and siphon one of two ways. Either attach a lady's nylons to the end of the tubing and put the nylons into your sump (to avoid discharging a lot of SW) or just siphon out the FW's into a drain or bucket. Just make sure you have even more than 3 days worth of 25% fresh SW to replace the siphoned out water.

The above step is extremely important. After you've siphoned out as many FW's as possible, take a powerhead and blow behind your aquascaping where you can't reach with the siphon tube. This will get the 'invisible' FW's out into the open for you to siphon them as well.

- The above step is now repeated for the next two days as well. So in total, you will have siphoned out FW's for three consecutive days.

- Day 4 is the moment of truth. You must turn OFF any carbon during the treatment. Have your 25% water change ready. Get a bottle of FWE.

- With your carbon off, squirt one full bottle of FWE into your tank, fuge and sump (most of it into your tank of course), remember, this is for a 100 gallon system.

- Within about 10-15 seconds you will begin to see a massive die off of FW's. Begin siphoning these dead/dying FW's out of the tank immediately.

- About 20 - 30 minutes after the first dose of FWE add another full bottle of FWE. Use a powerhead to blow into all the dead spots you possibly can. The FW's will be blowing all over your tank now. Keep siphoning them out.

- About 10 - 15 minutes after the second dose of FWE begin running your carbon.

- By now you will probably have siphoned out about 25% of your tanks water. Hopefully you will have siphoned out as many of the visible dead FW's as possible. You can now replace the siphoned out water with fresh SW.

- This treatment is to be repeated three days after you did the FWE the first time. The amount of FW die off on the second treatment will be almost zero if the first treatment was done following the directions explicitly.

- One week after the first treatment you should do the treatment one more time (only one dose should be necessary on the last day, not the two full bottles). Remember to turn off your carbon each time. Also remember to do 25% water changes on the third day and one week treatment even though you probably won't see any dead FW's. This is just to remove any possible dead FW's and to be totally sure all toxins are removed from the tank.

By this time your water should be FW free and crystal clear with all those water changes and carbon running.

Good luck and welcome to a FW free tank. :approve:

Russ

From this thread:


http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/general-discussion/9231-flatworm-exit.html

 

[Aqualung]

Thanxxx ALL!!!

 

[Aqualung]

Is there any reef safe creature that eats these things ??

 

[mray]

There is a nudibranch that does eat them but it doesn't last long in our tanks.

 

[fuzzyClam]

I've had a couple wrasses pick at them(green and yellow halichores), but not enough to rid my tank when I had my epidemic.

one thing to know, they are attracted to light, so I focused a beam of light onto a spot of LR.
after a couple hours there were thousands in the beam area, easy to siphon out that way, and only a few hundred floaters when i nuked the tank with FWE.

 

[Aqualung]

OK.. Here is what I did.. Everyday I've been siphoning them out.. Today I siphoned out about 3 gallons of water in a bucket.. I triple dosed the bucket with FWE.. I took out the corals 1 by 1 and soaked them in the bucket for a few minutes.. Gave them a good shake and put them back.. Also did it to any rock I could fit in the bucket.. Rearanged everything and dosed the tank.. Now I am running a system 1 diatom to suck up most of the dead ones remaining in the tank.. The corals seem to be doing well.. I hope this dont happen again!! Joey

 

[masterswimmer]

When you dosed the tank did you see any more dead ones 'flying around'? You should re-treat your tank again in three days and then once more one week after your first treatment.

Do a nice size water change (30%) and you should be running carbon aggressively now.


The ONLY way to make sure this doesn't happen again is to treat with FWE every single frag or rock you add to your tank in the future.

BTW, Brendan, thanks for the hype

swimmer

 

[Aqualung]

I ran the System one Diatom for a few hours,changed out the powder a few times.. Yes there was a few dead ones floating around after I treated the tank..Now I am running a rena XP3 with 2 chambers full of Kent Reef Carbon. I will do a water change tomorrow.. Now you are saying I should treat again in 3 days even if I dont see any more Flat Worms??
Thanxx to everyone that has replied!!!

 

[masterswimmer]

Now you are saying I should treat again in 3 days even if I dont see any more Flat Worms??

Yep, I am saying just that. AND, when you do treat it again, overdose the crap out of it one more time.

YOU said you don't want any more of them. I like guaranty's, but nobody will give you one. This is the best method I've seen.

swimmer

 

[Aqualung]

OK Will do!! and thanxx Again!! Joey

 

[masterswimmer]

OK Will do!! and thanxx Again!! Joey

No problem Joey. Keep us posted on the results. It's good for people to see that this method works and it's successful on more than one occasion.

Russ