Flatworms?

[Natterjak]

I'm battling a relatively mild case of brown flatworms (the photosynthetic kind) - I've done two treatments of FWE, but I can't seem to eradicate them completely. The second dose I did was probably a 150% dose, and it still didn't do the trick. I've basically been taking to occassionally siphoning the sand bed and squishing the ones on the acrylic.

I was thinking of getting a fish to try to control/eradicate the rest - has anyone had luck with this? I used to have a six-line, but gave that away a while ago, but I've heard that they will sometimes eat these things. I've heard spotted mandarins will sometimes eat them too (I guess the psychedelic ones won't?). Was thinking of getting one of these, or both. I gave away my six-line because I was planning on keeping fairy wrasses in the future, but that's not necessarily a must.

Figures that just when my dino problem started to go away, these guys show up. It's always something!

 

[Thales]

Any biological control is hit and miss.

How have you been dosing the FWE? I have never had a problem with it.

 

[Natterjak]

The first time I think I added it straight to the tank...the second time I added it to the return section of my sump. I left all my pumps running, took out the carbon and turned off ozone. It always seemed to get rid of most of them (and my cerith snails always were immediately unhappy), but left a few stragglers. Most of my flatworms seem to be on the sandbed and the front pane...maybe I should turn off my closed loop and try to blast flow in those spots somehow? I just hate to waste more money of FWE if it continues not to work.

 

[Raddogz]

Bonnie - I dosed with three bottles of flatworm exit in my 120g w' half full 50g sump. I over did it a bit, but killed off the brown flatworms.

 

[Natterjak]

Eileen, how long did you wait until you started carbon? I'm always afraid to start it too early or too late.

I have 180g plus around 40-50g in my sump I think. The last time I dosed, I used a full bottle plus about 1/4 left from the first time I dosed. Think I need to use 4 next time? Yikes!

 

[Raddogz]

I believe I waited 12 hours before I started running the carbon.

The skimmer was on, but let the skimmer overflowth (took the skimmer cup off). It also depends on how bad the infestation is too. I had flatworms starting to cover the bases of sps.

 

[Natterjak]

Wow, 12 hours? Maybe I'm starting mine way too soon then, because I think I put it in after 30 minutes - the instructions said to start carbon as soon as flatworms started to die, and I didn't want to wait too long because things started to look unhappy.

It's funny that my ceriths always immediately fall off the glass the minute I add the FWE - they seem to recover, but they always have the most immediate reaction.

 

[Raddogz]

Fwiw, my tank was very lightly stocked - two fish at the time and a few clams. The snails were very p'oed at me, as were the bristleworms who made a mass exodus out of the rockwork.

I had a few softies, sps, and lps which were not affected by all of chemical warfare going on.

I say mention this because every tank is going to be different. I probably had only maybe fifty pounds of rock in a 120g tank so I had more water volume and a ton of flow via a Vortech pump.

 

[Elite]

You might have problem with your SPS. I know a guy who was using it and his SPS lost color after that. Took a while for it come back. He thinks it's the FE causing it.

Eileen,
3 bottles?? ..

 

[Natterjak]

Ah okay. Yeah, the last time I tried to wait a little while before starting carbon, and some of my SPS were looking a bit unhappy. One that was in a fairly high flow area started to lose flesh. Fish seemed fine, but snails were dropping everywhere.

 

[Raddogz]

[quote author=Elite link=topic=1975.msg19066#msg19066 date=1176843827]
You might have problem with your SPS. I know a guy who was using it and his SPS lost color after that. Took a while for it come back. He thinks it's the FE causing it.

Eileen,
3 bottles?? ..
[/quote]

Yep, 3 bottles. I nuked the tank with it because I had the one bottle from months before did absolutely nothing long term.

I had very little in livestock at the time - I'm in no way suggesting what I did as gold for everyone else.

 

[Thales]

How did you know the fw's were starting to die?

 

[nash]

[quote author=Natterjak link=topic=1975.msg19010#msg19010 date=1176832666]
I'm battling a relatively mild case of brown flatworms (the photosynthetic kind) - I've done two treatments of FWE, but I can't seem to eradicate them completely. The second dose I did was probably a 150% dose, and it still didn't do the trick. I've basically been taking to occassionally siphoning the sand bed and squishing the ones on the acrylic.

I was thinking of getting a fish to try to control/eradicate the rest - has anyone had luck with this? I used to have a six-line, but gave that away a while ago, but I've heard that they will sometimes eat these things. I've heard spotted mandarins will sometimes eat them too (I guess the psychedelic ones won't?). Was thinking of getting one of these, or both. I gave away my six-line because I was planning on keeping fairy wrasses in the future, but that's not necessarily a must.

Figures that just when my dino problem started to go away, these guys show up. It's always something!
[/quote]
I had a marine betta and it ate them all.

 

[Raddogz]

The flatworms loosen from the rock and start to float around in the water column, usually attached via the sticky mucous. The flatworms kinda curl up as well.

 

[Natterjak]

I didn't know for sure, but assumed they were, because when I added the FWE, all the ones on the acrylic started to move around rather quickly, and then they started to curl and floated off the acrylic. I did see some, however, that were floating around and landed on the sand and started to move again, but some kind of curled up and just floated around in the water column.

I also figured they were starting to die because of the way my snails and corals were reacting, which I assumed was to the toxins being released.

 

[Thales]

Do you have a lot of flatworms? Most people who's coral suffer have a lot, and it is generally recommended that you siphon as may as you can out over a week or two before FWE the tank. If you have a lot, then the toxin from the FW's become a problem. If you have fewer at the time of treatment, you can leave the FWE in for longer without there being the problem of the toxin.

 

[Natterjak]

It really doesn't seem like I have a lot - they're certainly not forming mats or anything. And they're pretty much isolated to the sand bed and the front acrylic. I didn't seem to get those clouds of flatworms that I've heard people mention when they use FWE.

 

[Thales]

Sounds to me like you weren't leaving the FWE in the water long enough.