AEFW woes

[lee_d_m]

I've been battling with AEFW for nearly a year now. Tried various methods to eradicate them, even went as far as moving them all into a separate frag tank and treating them for 8 weeks, but still they've come back and I'm now at a point where I have about 5 acros left of the 50 I had a year ago.

I don't want to tear the tank down and start again as the system is 4 years old and all other corals are mature and I also don't want to risk harming my fish.

I'm thinking of just removing what is left of my acros and then leaving the display acro free for a period of time long enough to be sure that they've all died out.

So, I guess what I'm asking is for advice on how long that timeframe should be and is there anything else I should or could do in the meantime to be sure that they've all gone

Thanks

Lee

 

[Pife]

That's your easiest option. Be sps free for 90 days.

 

[ClownNut]

yeah, remove all acros, make sure all the base remove or cover them with putty/superglue. 2 months is long enough of time if not acros present in the tank.

 

[Piper27]

I would say dipping from the display would be simple and easy with just 5 acros. If they came back you either had some acros left in the display tank with eggs somewhere or you didn't dip every week. Even skipping a day or two can throw the dipping cycle back to the beginning if done at the wrong time. I always found moving the corals around to other tanks stressed the acros and keeping them in the display keeps them healthy. Aefw pray on weak acros and unhealthy acros. What were you treating with?

 

[lee_d_m]

I removed every acro I had to my frag tank, if there was anything left in there, I couldn't see it, but I obviously can't be 100% sure. I treated them with Revive with weekly dips for 8 weeks and inspected for eggs at the same time. I honestly think that I lost more acros by treating than I would have done by leaving them, but it's easy in hindsight.

I've had enough now with the dipping as it's taking then fun out of the hobby for me, so I would just like to find the best way to get my tank to a point where I'm AEFW free and I can start to rebuild my collection again.

 

[Chevisc]

I feel your pain ! Dealing with the little he'll spawns now. About to start flatworm stop as soon as it gets here. Did the dipping and been blowing off corals daily and have not found a flatworm for 30 days but I'm am finding eggs which unless I missed them previously are new.

 

[Piper27]

Unless your getting rid of the corals you have now I don't see any other way to get rid of them for sure other than dipping. I dipped for 8 weeks like you and missed something so I had to start over too. Can you share how you dipped? I know the pain of dipping every week but once they are gone you will enjoy the tank so much more.

 

[jda]

Can you go lights out, or do you have other corals?

If you can go lights out, I would do this for 4 months. This way, if there is some rouge acro behind the rocks or in a nook and cranny that you cannot see, then it will die off and make sure that you are sterile.

One of the locals had a small frag start to grow where he could not see and it ruined his whole fallow period. At a minimum, look around with a mirror just to take a look the best that you can.