AEFW-Die suckers:)

[gflat65]

As some of you know, I have found AEFW on my tank. The movement for eradication has begun...

I removed every acro from my system tonight... The tank is very bare. I drained ~35 gallons on a water change to fill the 20L initially and not upset the acros. Did the treatment and did a 66%water change in the 20L with more of the water I pulled from the display earlier. I'll likely do another WC in a couple of days, before the next treatment (then again after the next treatment...). The post treatment WC's will likely all come from the display, with 25% NSW WC's between treatments.

I threw together a treatment tank and started the treatment tonight. 3.36g of levamisole HCl (90%) for 1 hour and ten minutes (started watching 24, so the hour got away from me...). One down, two more to go over the next week and a half.

Setup empty

Acros in the tub

Acros after treatment (no difference)

Top down, just for fun (not a great shot...)

Dying flatworm. There were at least thirty or forty of the nasty little buggers on th ebottom of the tank after the treatment (along with a few writhing pods and bristle worms)

 

[Dubbin1]

Well I hope you got them all cleaned up. Oh and that is one super getto canopy that you have going there

 

[Bigred]

I'm about to do the same thing. I'm tired of treating my whole system without success.

 

[drake66]

thats absolutely ghettolicious as one person said in another thread but congrats on the AEFW treatment

 

[gflat65]

I slammed my Ghetto sled this morning to put the lights a little closer. I was scrambling around Sunday night trying to figure out how to mount the lights and found and old PVC stand I made for plants. A few chops later, and viola. If this becomes a permanent fixture (i.e. frag tank that the wife has been beguiled into thinking was a treatment tank), I'll move it on up to the East side.

 

[gflat65]

Um... There are flatworms crusing around the glass of the treatment tank... Should I be treating for more than an hour at 40ppm? I expected genocide...

 

[otolith]

I thought the treatment was supposed to be for 5-6 hours??? You could always watch them and time when they die, then do the treatment for that period of time next time.

 

[gflat65]

I thought I read that somewhere, but couldn't find it again... I read in the new volume of Reef Aquarium by Sprung something much lower in time, but that may have been a conservative estimate. Looks like tomorrow will get a nice long soak. Got enough Levamisole to last a while, so I may just have to dig in...

 

[Sparkss]

going to be doing this soon ourselves on our prop tank. Planning to jsut dose the old tank with levamisole then just transfer the corals to the new tank and start up the pumps. Like BigRed I am tiring of trying to treat them in tank.....

 

[gflat65]

Just found the thread I read several weeks ago... It mentions a 5 hour treatment at 40ppm for a 'dip'. I'm gonna hit the 20L hard again tonight and see if that makes these little nasties shrivel.

 

[gflat65]

Apparently, I should have treated for 5 hours instead of 1. I got some guidance from mjcarl. The procedure is going to be a bit tougher, but if it gets rid of them, it'll be worth it. Nothing else goes in my tank without a dip in some Levamisole.

I'm treating the 20L again with 3.36g for five hours. Then I plan to drain the water into a rubbermaid tub and some into a 3 gallon bucket. As the water level comes down, I will violently swish the colonies/frags in the 3 gallon bucket and place them in the water I will be pulling from the main display later this evening (around 10:30'ish). Then I will be pumping that water back into the 20L (after cleaning out the little nasties) and put the colonies/frags back into the 20L. Four treatments at about a week apart should get them all, according to anecdotal evidence... hurts to see the little pods writhing in agony, though. A tiny Eunicid worm has wondered out of the rock (only about 4" long and thin) and is not happy, too. Don't mind that one so much, though.

 

[Emster]

gflat65, were can you get levamisole and what will be your procedure for new additions? I wonder if you can mix it with interceptor.

 

[otolith]

gflat--be sure to post your progress and experiences along the way. It would be nice to have another person who's been successful with the process.

 

[gflat65]

Googity... Just finished the first full treatment (just gave them a shot of some immunotherapy, apparently, Monday night).

I left the 'meds' in for 5 hours and 25 minutes (before starting to drain and swish). 3.36g again. I drained a little bit of water from the 20L (~5 gallons) into a 15 gallon tub for the swishing. After getting most of the larger pieces out, I started swishing in the 20L with the powerhead. It took 40 minutes to swish everything (violently...). I used a MJ 1200 to blow off everything I could from the frags and rock, then gave everything a nice violent swish and moved it into the WC water in a 37 gallon tub from the display from just before the swish. I then rinsed everything from the tank (equipmentwise) in hot water under the spray nozzle in the kitchen sink, including the 20L. A few fat FW's were still clinging to the sides of the tank. They melted away under the hot water. That took 25 minutes. The it took 35 minutes to put the corals back into the 20L with water from the main display WC.

Most of the acros were sliming out a little and it looks like there is some lightening, but that may be from the full assault from the powerhead. I may have a few casualties, but right now, they seem to be smaller pieces that can be replaced. The water after the swishing was pretty foul. They got a 100% water change. I'll inspect tomorrow to see if I have any roamers on the glass and to see how everything makes it through. Alot of them were showing polyps as soon as I put them in the 37 gallon tub.

My back is sore and I'm pretty tired. Fried my heater (water level in rubbermaid tub dropped too low and it got hot quick and cracked when it slipped further into the water). Fun night. Time for some beddie bye...

 

[gflat65]

Emster,

I got the Levamisole at the local CO-OP. It is a pig wormer. I wonder if it wouldn't kill red bugs, too, since it kills other pods...

Update, looks like I'm loosing my efflo, granulosa, and a tenius frag. The efflo was pretty eaten up by the FW's, but it is rtn'ing, now... I was pretty harsh on the swishing and PH blasting last night. The granulosa was almost gone before I pulled it from the display initially (fell in the sand for a few days). I'm not sure about why the tenius is rtn'ing. It looked healthy before the treatment. Oh well, not the prettiest tenius, and most of my corals look fine. I'll miss the efflo most. I've got a little lightening of color on a stag frag, but it shows polyps tips. Polyp extension is not what it was last night before the treatment on any of them, but most of them are at least showing some sort of extension. Funny thing is that mille's are supposed to be very susceptible to AEFW and all of mine look great...

 

[gflat65]

Well, problems... I came home from work with my ORA purple tip bottlebrush, Scripps Green tip, Chips Acro, cardus, and an orange mille rtn'ing...

Scripps Green tip

Was an Orange mille

ORA Purpletip bottlebrush

Efflo

Chips

I fragged what I could.

No one looks extremely happy... I have some mild sliming (looks like mesenterial filaments) on a few and lightening on others, with reduced polyp extention across the board. To boot, I am leaving town for the night... Oh well, I guess you win some and lose most. It wouldn't be life without that simple fact...

 

[Sparkss]

To waht do you attribute the RTNing ? From what you posted it sounds like you followed the typical Levamisole procedure. Is there something that you did different ? Thanks in advance.

 

[gflat65]

So far, I think everything has been within the norm (if there is such a thing). Instead of dipping them in something different, I treated the whole 20L, drained some water into a rubbermaid to do the swishing and PH agitation, then immediately moved them into a rubbermaid with water from the main display. I'm wondering how many of the corals that are rtn'ing now were in the rubbermaid when I fried the heater. Just thought of that again... It wasn't in the water more than a split second, but maybe that was enough. It seems like the ORA purple tip bottlebrush was in the 20L when it happened, and I'm pretty sure my blue tort was, as it is on the larger rock (a new one I found rtn'ing today...). I'm going to do some tests tomorrow before changing out the water to see if I can find something out of whack. I had to go out of town this weekend, and work has been hectic... It may come down to a lapse in good husbandry. I'm hoping that's the case. I've been paying pretty close attention to the tank (an hour or so a night), but I haven't tested anything since I started the treatments (but the last 100% WC was Thursday, so...). I'll post if anything is out of whack in terms of water chemistry tomorrow.

 

[fishdoc11]

Let me know what you loose that I have Gary. I will gladly replace them.
Chris

 

[gflat65]

Thanks Chris. Every time I look, something else is going... My unidentified blue tort from Dave, my Bali tricolor (I don't think anyone in the area has this one), the MI purple bonsai (paid $35 for a 1/2" frag at the Chatt frag swap), the blue polyped austera from the AC meeting, that purple tipped stag... I guess if I lose them all, I can be assured I won't have any AEFW's. Sorry for the pessimistic attitude, but with the downpours at my house lately and the 12 day headache, it's hard to find the happy place. Even with the happy dance...

Purple Tipped stag

ORA bottlebrush

MI purple bonsai (Bali tricolor is in front and has a small spot of rtn at the base of the encrustation)

Indo stag

Green tabling acro

Cardus

Blue polyped austera (from tips down)

The rtn has been from all directions (tip down, base up, middle out).

Just tested the water.

NH4-somewhere between 0 and .25
NO2-undetectable
NO3-less than .5
alk (dKH)-7.7

It looks like there might have been a small spike of something, but I wouldn't think it would be enough to do this damage. Time for the water change.