FW Dipping

[PFisher]

It is time to get rid of those pesky flatworms that have been the bain of my existance for the past several months.

The plan is to FW dip the LR and let them re-cycle in a 10 gal off to the side. I still have a filter with bio media and dead rocks for the fish, so the main tank should be fine during this time. Then once the rocks are cured and ready to go back into the main tank, out comes the dead rock and substrate along with any remaining flatworms. Then I run with a bare bottom for a while so that I can see and squish any that I missed.

My question is with the FW dipping, how long should the LR be in the FW? Should I scrub them? Are there any other major flaws in my plan?

Thanks.

[zulu_principle]

What about trying flatworm exit ?

[PFisher]

I haven't heard of that before, do you have any more information on it? Has anyone used it? Putting chemicals in my tank always makes me nervous.

[zulu_principle]

look on reef central, im not talking about putting the chemicals in your tank, im talking about using it for your dip....

[PFisher]

I will check it out. Thanks.

[Just2Bad]

12.99$US Treats up to 300 gallons
http://www.fishsupply.com/f2/ProductImages/flatwormexit_01.gif
http://www.fishsupply.com/cgi-bin/f2/common/store.cgi?dbname=f2&mode=item&path=top/XN/SMFSF-03000

[Doug]

Agreed, lots of threads on RC about treatment. I have a few loooong posts there.

Here it is in brief, :lol:
I have fought flatworms for the last couple years. Treated twice with Oomed. My fish got sick from the flatworms toxin, when they died. BE very careful. For whatever reason, when I started my new tank, I still had the little %&^#^^&*.
****** I AM NOT SUGGESTING THE USE OF QUICK CURE, JUST RELATING MY EXPERIENCE>BE VERY CAREFUL******* {LIKE SOME OTHER PRODUCTS, IT CAN TURN SILICONE BLUE}**************
My lfs friend tried some Quick Cure, {its a freshswater ick treatment}, in one of his tanks. It wiped out the worms. The corals closed up for awile, but since recovered. Never seemed to bother anything else.

I got so fed up fighting the flatworms and "waiting for them to go away naturally", :lol: , I figured what the hey. Also my frags were still small enough to remove from the rock.

This time however, I removed everything in my tank. Some rock, the corals, inverts & fish were placed in one tub. All the rest of the rock, {several hundred pounds}, was placed in two other tubs. I then removed all my GeoMarine crushed coral bed and cleaned it in fresh water. :shock:

The two tubs of rock, were treated with Quick Cure. The empty tank water was dosed also. My large brittle star was still in the rock tubs, along with some snails & crabs. Never fizzed them what-so-ever. Along with the dead flatworms, I did see some dead pods.

I then replaced some gravel, only an inch so I can clean it,{flatworms favorite home}, plus some deeper and a little fine sand in the back, for the leopard wrasse and conch to hide, if they wished.

I then shook the be-jeebers out of every pice of rock, and built the reef again. {some still remained in the tub, w/livestock}. I then again treated the tank and rock, :twisted: {I was going to get them this time}, :lol:. All this time I had icecream buckets sitting on the braces, full of floss, being fed with pumps to clean the tank. After another day, I added some carbon and polyfilters to the buckets to remove the Quick Cure from the tank. At this time, I also treated my overflows, which are mini refugiums.

After all this I turned to the tub of critters. I had made a bucket of fresh water fo dip. Same ph & temp as tank. PTHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, {I will explain that later}, :lol:

Each piece of rock was treated in a bucket of Quick Cure treated saltwater, then fresh water dipped for 15 sec. {swished}. Some of these rocks had sizable colonies of monti digita. My large 10 year old bubble and cup corals, were also treated. I dipped the cup in both, but only the base of the bubble in Quick Cure and then all in freshwater.

All the sps frags were freshwater dipped only, as "its supposed to be safe for the corals" and I did not trust the Quck Cure with them.

Then the tub of water, with the fish & inverts still there, plus my skimmer running a full bore, was treated with Quick Cure. After this, they were placed back into the tank. All pumps, calcium reactor, and anything else, were also treated. Cleaned out the sump, put all fresh saltwater back in and started it up. I had a large bucket in there, under the overflow pipes, full of floss, carbon & polyfilters. This was run for a couple weeks.

RESULTS:
A month later, no flatworms yet. :)

The Quick Cure, seems to have bothered nothing. Never lost a snail, fish, worm, invert of any kind.

HOW &^%*&&$#^@ EVER, the fresh water dip, that was to protect my sps, killed them all. They all bleached and died. :x :x I amy as well just dipped them. I lost several acro frags, a couple brown digitas, one ofthe green digita, a monti cap frag, and my beautiful table acro frag. :cry: :cry: :cry: {thats me bawling}. All my other corals were fine.

[Justin]

I had much the same experiance as Doug and did things much the same as him. Howeer after a couple of months, it seemed the worms were back, and I could not find any of them anywhere.

SOooooooo I know this is bad, but I was desperate. I took all the rock and substrate, and tossed the substrate. Then all the rock went into the bathtub on cold water. Pure Cold. Within and hour low and behold, out of the rocks came a worm about 3" long and maybe half an inch wide. So I figured I killed my rock, and there was no turning back now, sooo, I drained the tub, and refilled it with Pure hot water, and I mean so hot you can't put your finger in it. Within 5 minutes out came another bloody worm, this one about 6" long and about 1" wide. Now I figured I had them all. Sooo the rock went out onto my back porch, where it was throughly power sprayed. It sat out overnight to dry, and in the morning I brought it inside where it sat in cold water for another hour, then in a bucket to dry, then into one of my African Cichlid tanks, where the juvies would eat anything on the rock still. That night, I happened to notice the juvies, about 12 of them, attacking a certain hole in the rock, and I was curious to what they were doing, so I stuck my arm in the tank and turned the rock so I could see what they were doing, BLAAHHHH There was the head of a worm no shorter then a foot long and atleast an inch and a quarter wide, it was toast and the cichlids were eating it. Disgusting! So the point is, some of these little buggers are the most horrid creatures on earth and despite your best efforts at removing them, sometimes you will have to kill your tank to get them. maybe I went off the deep end, but at the time it was all I felt I could do! :cry:

[Aquattro]

Justin, what you are describing are not flatworms, they are bristle worms...and they are good for your tank. Flatworms are tiny reddish brown planaria about 1-2 mm long. They almost look rectangular. You will notice them forming matts along the edges of your rock work.

Bristles worms on the other hand, are long reddish worms that for the most part are awesome for your tank. They eat detritus and stir the sand. Occasionally you'll get a bad one that might eat a snail or clam, but these are not all that common.
I think you killed a whole lot of rock for nothing... :cry:

[Aquattro]

Justin, here is a pic of flatworms

http://www.islandreef.ca/post/worms.jpg

[Bob I]

Justin, what you are describing are not flatworms, they are bristle worms...and they are good for your tank.

I fully agree with Brad here. You might have a look at the "pictures" forum under "a worm for reefraf" then you will know what bristleworms look like.

[StirCrazy]

hmmm.. what a waist of good live rock :roll: to bad you didn't offer a beter discription of the worms befor you nuked them, you could have kept your live rock instead of making it all dead rock..

Steve

[zulu_principle]

Brad

Nice picture of the flatworms in your tank..... :shock:

[Aquattro]

Brad

Nice picture of the flatworms in your tank..... :shock:

Not my tank!! Pic compliments of Dr. Ron