Master Plan for Killing Flatworms

[legalreefer]

I have been fighting my flatworms for some time now. In a few weeks (at least I think) I am going to start setting up my 180. Right now I have my 100g sump, and 100g temp tank. These two are plumbed together. I have a 180 sitting empty on the other side of the wall of my sump.

So here is my plan.... I am going to pull all the rock (some have corals) out of the temp tank and sump and put it in the 180 with enough water to cover them and some. Keeping the fish where they are in the 100g tanks. Then add Flatworm Exit to the 180. Do as the directions instruct and suck out as many worms as possible. Refill with new water. Wait a couple days and hit is again with flatworm exit. Water change. Once that’s complete I will place my rock work the way I want it and fill with water and new live sand. Still keeping the 180 separate from the other system. FWIW, I have plenty of heaters and power heads.

Now to the sump. Take the clowns and inverts out of it and put in the temp tank with the other fish. Once fish are gone, I am going to disconnect it from the other 100g so all 3 tanks are stand alone. Then hit the sump with flat worm exit. Syphon out what I can and refill with new water. Repeat. Once it’s good, plumb it into the 180 and let it all cycle for however long it needs.

After the sump and 180 marinate, I will put all fish and inverts in the 180 and hopefully have a flatworm free system. Then drain the temp tank bc I will no longer need it.

Sorry for the length but I feel there are many important steps that needed to be mentioned.

Thoughts?

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[lmm1967]

Following along - have a similar situation - need to get rid of flatworms when swapping out from a 60 to a 120 and I really don't want to deal with a cycle.

Curious to know if flatworm exit impacts beneficial bacteria in live rock.

 

[FutureInterest]

Flatworm exit, herein FWE, is a magic bullet for this problem.  If only all reef pests had this kind of magic bullet our lives would be much easier .  One dosage at recommended amounts is more than enough to take care of the problem from my experience.

Lmm - FWE won't cause a cycle unless you have an enormous amount of flatworms and have a lot of die off.  It would have to be a lot though to cause an ammonia spike in an established tank.  These things are tiny and we often feed our tanks a lot more in a day than these things could add up to in biomass.  So you'd have to have a ton of em to be a problem.  Please keep in mind that you can only see about half or less of the ones that are actually in there.  They advise siphoning out as many as you can before you hit the tank with it since apparently they can have toxins in them.  Make sure you have some fresh carbon handy and a water change ready to go as FWE is super effective.  You'll see the lil buggers die quickly... very satisfying .

 

[schwaggs]

My experience with FWE has been a little less successful than FutureInterest's. It will kill them but it seems, they come back over time. I was trying single treatments.

I like your idea of doing 2 treatments separated by a week or 2. I can't tell you if separating your system like that is needed but I never experienced any ammonia spikes or toxic effects from the dead FWs. I did siphon them out to reduce their potential effects.

There is a reason one of the stages of my new acquisition dips is a concentrated FWE stage! I never want them back!

 

[telsonman]

Is it plague proportions? Too many for a wrasse and some springer damsels?

 

[legalreefer]

I’m am not worried about the tank cycling due to the die off of the worms. My worry is it might cycle from moving the live rock and the addition of live sand. I’m going to treat the live rock separately from the system to keep the toxins from potentially harming the fish and inverts.
I feel I have a plague portions. A while ago my wrasse lost his appetite for them. I noticed the worms a few weeks ago when a urchin knocked over a rock. The rocks hidden below it are absolutely covered with flatworms. And some that have been exposed. This is not a new issue, I’ve just been ignoring it.
I think I am going to go buy a regular kitchen style trash can and dip all the rocks in it first, then place them in the 180. I will treat again with them all in the 180. And potential once again when the sump is plumbed into it

 

[legalreefer]

I have started moving rock into a tub with FWE. I added 12 drops to about 10g of water from the system. Within 2-3 minutes the flatworms started dying and floating. I will put them in the 180 once they’ve been in the tub for an hour.

I took a vid but it is too big of a file...

 

[snowmansnow]

I have defeated flatworms within the last year on my newest tank by using the KZ product and adding appropriate predation. For me it was a yellow coris and malenoris wrasse (not sure of spelling).

The KZ product seems to work great, but you have to give it time (like a few months). Once it takes hold the wrasses seemed to finish the job nicely. If you have livestock that is being eaten up you may want to go a different route.