Dosed flatworm exit...

[asylumdown]

Managed to order a couple of boxes from J&L. I was nervous about dosing it because I was pretty sure I had a big flatworm problem.

I had no idea just how right I was! I dosed enough for 375 gallons (approximately my tank volume) and within a minute it looked like the sacking of rome in there. I've never seen anything like it. There must have been hundreds of thousands of them. They came rising from my rocks in stringy, mucousy sheets, it looked like my tank was actually on fire. I have a coraline algae in there that is the same colour as the flatworms, and wow, I have way less of that coraline than I thought. Whole rocks that I thought were covered in coraline were in fact covered in continuous carpets of flatworms.

I did this now because all my fish are getting treated for ich in a separate QT, and so far it looks like the only collateral casualty is one snail. Only one coral has retracted it's polyps, and everyone else is business as usual.

I've got several pounds of carbon right in the filter bag, and as soon as I don't see any more bodies flying around I' going to dump it, change bags, and add fresh carbon.

My oh my that stuff is effective.

[asylumdown]

ps, should I be worried that my 2 acans colonies and one of my open brains have eaten about 200 flatworms each?

[asylumdown]

ok, so today not a single coral has normal polyp extension. Last night after the flatworms started dying, I put several pounds of pure carbon in the filter sock and let it run for a few hours. Before bed I changed that sock (It smelled to high heaven), and since I didn't have anymore straight up carbon left, I dumped a container of Pura Complete into the filter sock.

I haven't been running a phosphate absorbing media in my tank for the past couple of months, so I'm not sure now if the polyps are reacting to residual toxin from the flatworms, or if they've been shocked by a sudden drop in phosphate levels.

I've removed the pura complete and have done a 20% water change, and I'm not seeing any improvement.

Anyone have any ideas?

[sphelps]

Flatworms are toxic when they die, believe it or not you have to remove them once you kill them with exit. In the end the common flatworm is harmless, I'll never treat for them as they usually come back anyway. Control is the best solution with a wrasse or something that eats them. Huge water change at this point is your best option.

[asylumdown]

I'd say 98% of them got sucked up in the overflows and taken out with the filter sock. By the time I went to bed, there weren't any more bodies left in the water or visible on the rock.

I also filtered with carbon for almost an entire day. I guess my real question is whether or not a sudden drop in phosphate levels will cause polyps to close up, because if not, I need to do a whole bunch more water changes.

[badfish!]

When I used flatworm exit, I just ran carbon, and I didn't notice any problems like that, so perhaps it is an issue with the phosphate (that being said, I have only zoas and acans in that tank)

[albert_dao]

You're better off with water changes over carbon. Using massive quantities of carbon can stress your corals out just as much as a million dying flatworms.

Now, given that it's too late to siphon out visible flatworms PRIOR to using the product, here are some guidelines to casualty free Flatworm Exit use:

- moderate carbon use
- frequent, medium (20%ish) water changes
- insane flow
- emptying your skimmer cup every time you walk by the tank

That's about it. As long as you follow those through, you'll be fine :)

[reefwars]

I guess my real question is whether or not a sudden drop in phosphate levels will cause polyps to close up, because if not, I need to do a whole bunch more water changes.


it sure can a sudden drop in phos is also bad

[asylumdown]

Well everyone was back to normal today, so I guess whatever it was it was just temporary.

Gonna do another water change tonight just to be sure, and I started running GFO again in my reactor. I figure if they'd already freaked out from a drop in phos, it would be better to let them adapt to the lower level and keep it that way!

[asylumdown]

Just thought i should add that the acans colony that ate the most of the flatworms when I dosed is officially toast. I'd say maybe 3 of it's heads are still reasonably intact, the rest only have little bits of tissue left clinging to the skeleton. The open brains and the other acans colony are fine though, as are the rest of my corals.