Aefw - Full tank

[Rouselb]

My 200 gallon, mature sps tank now has aefw despite my QT and dip procedures. It appears eggs entered the system roughly 6 months ago. I begin yesterday by removing colonies and dipping them in revive for 5 min and scraping eggs off. I made it through 1/3 of the colonies. Here are a few questions i still have:
1. Must i remove all the sand and rock? The rock has encusted acros all over most of it, the sand is filled with little bits of acros that the fish have broke off.

2. If i remove all of the LR, Fish, and Sand will there be enough bacteria to keep the acros healty?

 

[scrapz]

if possible, setup a QT tank and run your display acro-free for 6-8 weeks. Just grab some LR from a buddy's mature tank, skimmer and good lighting. Removing all the LS, LR & fish would be too stressful on the system. Would release toxins & detritus stuck in the rock & sand.

If you cannot, I would dip once every coral every 1.5 weeks for 6-8 weeks and try to break the life cycle.

 

[stryker]

sorry to hear, it's a horrible feeling i know. i went though this two times in my career and if i had to do it again (knock on wood)...

i would not remove all your sand and rock otherwise you're tank would go haywire and you would lose the equilibrium that has made everything grow so well. your corals are going to be stressed from the dips and need a stable tank to recover in.

remove your acros from the rockwork (remount them if needed) and scrape off the encrusted parts. remove as much as you can.

dip with revive, scrape eggs and qt. trash colonies with too many eggs.

it would be ideal if you had a large frag tank(connected to display for stability) these can rest in so you can monitor and treat, but this is not always possible. you might have to treat and return to the display. this can work if you keep up the dips and be careful not to dislodge any eggs and fw into the water column when you move the corals.

some large colonies my need to be fragged or tossed.

 

[Rouselb]

I can get a QT and move them to that, but wouldnt that be the same as me just removing all the LR and sand?? Theres really nothing in the tank but acros and fish. If i setup a QT i need something really...and i mean really large. I have 75+ colonies. I cut off some acros last night and dipped them. I dont have a problem cutting them off the LR and putting them in a QT. Just wondering how they will react with no LR in the QT.

 

[NanoBen]

Flatworm exit... Wrasses... Lots of dips. Coral rx. ... N scrape of as much as possible. It will take time but you'll get it. O. When u use flatworm make sure to take a powerhead n blow everything really good then add it. If u need any help just MSG me. I don't live far from u

 

[Rouselb]

Revive seems to work really well. I caught it early enough, might loose one colony, and thats nothing really. I did cut off a few colonies from LR the other day, so I will continue to cut them off and scrape eggs (really not too many eggs). Most of the colonies didnt have any aefw on them, but i wanted to get it taken care of now.

I can bring in a larger tank ( I have one available ) and put all the colonies on it. I was pretty sure removing all the LR would be a very bad thing to do! I plan to plumb up the new tank this week and get all the acros into it. I will plumb it into my current system. Iv been wanting to free up some space and achieve better flow, so now i will have the opportunity.

 

[Dave71]

You may want to consider using Levamisole in your DT.

 

[rogerwilco357]

so how did you get the bugs ? you say you dip all your corals right and you still got them how did that happen so i don't make the same mistake? very nice tank hope it all works out .
Roger

 

[stryker]

revive was not available when i did my treatments so i used fluke tabs, which is more harsh on the coral. i had a seperate qt and lost 60% of the corals due to stress, inadequate flow, light, stability. if you can plumb a huge tank into your display, that would be idea since the water will be the same. you just need to give the colonies enough flow and light without them blowing all over the place.

if you have caught the problem early, you might be ok with setting up the extra tank, and housing some corals in there and some in the display. good luck!

 

[scrapz]

damn, to dip those would require 20g buckets.

I see alot of monti/digitata & birdnest colonies. Those do not need to be pulled so it should save you some work.

I would remove the infected pieces first. They typically target validas/bonsais/tricolors & millies. I would start by dipping those first.

 

[seminolecpa]

FWE IMHO is totally worthless with AEFW and is really designed for planaria. As for other dips, you can dip frags etc till the cows come home but dips don't really do anything to erridicate the eggs. If for some reason you miss the eggs and they hatch you get to become a member of the club. QT is the only real safe way of doing it.


I was totally anal about dipping and trying to only get corals from what I considered "reliable" sources and still wound up with them.

A turkey baster and wrasses can go a long way toward a non chemical in-tank treatment for them. the key is to do it religiously and break the life cycle before the juveniles can lay eggs again. I am on month 2 of this process and I am going weeks without seeing a AEFW and my corals show almost no damage any more.

 

[scrapz]

FWE IMHO is totally worthless with AEFW and is really designed for planaria. As for other dips, you can dip frags etc till the cows come home but dips don't really do anything to erridicate the eggs. If for some reason you miss the eggs and they hatch you get to become a member of the club. QT is the only real safe way of doing it.


I was totally anal about dipping and trying to only get corals from what I considered "reliable" sources and still wound up with them.

A turkey baster and wrasses can go a long way toward a non chemical in-tank treatment for them. the key is to do it religiously and break the life cycle before the juveniles can lay eggs again. I am on month 2 of this process and I am going weeks without seeing a AEFW and my corals show almost no damage any more.

Agreed. Without setting up a qt they are inevitable. I just finished round #3 with AEFW 2 months ago. I dipped the corals 3x over the course of 2 weeks and have basted the corals religiously 3x a day with a turkey baster. So far no sign of them, but I know their lurking somewhere

Round #2 I thought I had won the battle and stopped basting my corals for 2 months and thats when they reappeared. I think religious basting is key to fighting off the infestation.

 

[seminolecpa]

Forgot to mention since daily basting my corals, they have never looked better. Probably has something to do with not allowing detritus to build up inside of large acro colonies.

 

[Rouselb]

I dip and QT for 1 week, when in fact i should be using the QT for 3-4 seeks to make sure eggs dont enter the system. I didnt know i had them, i was moving some colonies to frag them and noticed some reciession on the base, when i started fragging i saw what appeared to be a flat worm. That lead me to dipping in Revive, when i did that i saw little baby worms. Got to love the hobby sometimes. No big losses, and its not the end of the world, there are some colonies that i dont really need in there any longer. I will just thin out what i have and keep the "good stuff". I plan to QT the whole tank for the next 5 weeks. I have a melan and 6 line wrasse, so im sure they have kept things in check. New tank here i come!!

 

[scrapz]

Forgot to mention since daily basting my corals, they have never looked better. Probably has something to do with not allowing detritus to build up inside of large acro colonies.

Basting = good preventive measure and good maintenance procedure

When I first started basting my corals, they use to be thinned branched and PE would not return for a long time. Take it easy when you first start basting, its a strong direct stream of water. I caused sps tissue to fly off by basting too much at one time when I first discovered flatworms.
After basting several times a day, they have developed a much thicker stalk and PE returns after a minute or so.

I also baste all my rocks to lift the detritus into the water column so it can be skimmed out

 

[Stanley-Reefer]

Yep...turkey basting and I have a black leopard wrasse that ignored every fish in the tank when it was put in and immediately started pecking the worms off my acros.....he's fat and happy and I maybe see one aefw fly off during bi weekly bastings.

When I started I did them 2x/d though. They flew everywhere and my pyramids, lamark, black and radiant wrasses ate them like candy@

IME the aefw favored validas and millies

 

[Dejavu]

Larry, sorry to hear about your troubles . When I had them I set up a QT and removed all acros... even the encrusted parts. Revive wasn't around when I treated, but it has worked well for me.

QT ofr 6-7 weeks leaving the display arco free with dips and egg removal each week. All the rock and sand can stay in the display. You want the QT to but "sterile", making easy to remove any AEFW that might fall off. Good luck and LMK if you need anything.

 

[NanoBen]

Wrasses go a long way. I know a local guy won't name names but had a full sps tank with at least 10 wrasses. Had the tank up for years n never knew he had aefw's. Lots of flow is the trick. They don't like it. Hense growing eggs at the bottom

you have to keep on it for two-three monts letting all the unseen eggs hatch in order to kill them. The eggs are a barrier n dipping doesn't do anything to them. Get a yellow coris Seems to work best.

Flatworm does work well but it has to be repeated every week or two for a few months. Wrasses n blasting everything n Itll be good

 

[veocool]

If he uses a QT for3-7 weeks with weaker lighting(Im assumingarefugium type light) than the DT, won't that cause brown out or poorhealth for the SPS?

 

[scottwhitson]

Browning out of the corals is the LEAST of your worries when dealing with AEFW. If you don't get control of them your corals will be dead not just browned out. I am fighting the same battle at the moment.