Coral Tank from Canada (1350gal Display Tank) - split

[captngreg]

I hope you have tried to retrieve your most favorite SPS and isolate them for treatment. I know you can have a hundred corals but there are always a few that standout from the rest.
Good luck

That which does not kill us only makes us stronger

unfortunately some will die, hopefully not the good ones.

 

[mr.wilson]

where did you purchase Rhynchocinetes durbanensis ?

They are very common. Back in the early days of reef keeping they were much more popular, but slowly they fell out of popularity due to their non-reef-safe status.

Saron marmoratus is another non-reef-safe shrimp that will eat AEFW.

 

[Elliott]

They are very common. Back in the early days of reef keeping they were much more popular, but slowly they fell out of popularity due to their non-reef-safe status.

Saron marmoratus is another non-reef-safe shrimp that will eat AEFW.

what makes them non reef safe?

 

[mr.wilson]

what makes them non reef safe?

They pick at colonial polyps and LPS. I'm not sure if they eat SPS or not. They will certainly steal food from their polyps.

 

[Briney Dave]

Peter and Shawn, really hard to sit back and just read about your tank falling apart. I wish there was something we (all) could do to help you.

What is the status on the worm damage

 

[nineball]

Peter and Shawn, really hard to sit back and just read about your tank falling apart. I wish there was something we (all) could do to help you.

What is the status on the worm damage

Thanks for your support Briney. I should say at this point that this challenge with the AEFW is both understandable and not totally unexpected. No one, including me likes to watch SPS colonies disappear in this way. I am pretty sure that I can account for the current result given the practice of simply dipping the coral on arrival and not allowing for a proper quarantine to deal with the eggs. As you know, for the most part this is an SPS dominated reef so this kind of event will be devastating to the majority of coral in the tank. I was prepared from the outset of this undertaking for the possibility of a destructive event and I'm pretty sure that I have learned enough not to see a reoccurrence with new procedures in place. First I don't expect to add any SPS to the main display tank for some time and probably not until most if not all SPS has been consumed. As I have mentioned earlier, I have acquired two new 8 foot tanks for the purpose of cultivating SPS for eventual placement into the main display tank. Also as noted in another post I may be able to save some SPS that I know does well in the tank and grow larger healthy colonies for return to the main display.

Thanks for the empathy Briney, the support is welcome and appreciated. I can assure you that Mr. Wilson and I are very determined to learn from this and continue in our pursuit of best practices for this hobby.........

Peter

 

[Spectre2006]

Peter sorry to hear about the infestation. Have you considered the possibility that it will be extremely hard to get rid of the infestation and even if you do get rid of it, that the shear size of the livestock(acropora) load could lead to a future infestation with all the quarintine safeguards in place.

In the ecosystem it might be prudent just to introduce as many predators as possible that fight it instead of tearing everything down.

 

[Chief Hill]

Simply amazing. Well done gentlemen... It’s inspiring to say the least. Now it’s time for a massive Koi pond build Peter. Lol.

 

[Made2Rock]

Peter,

I will be in Buffalo this coming weekend. I do not have a place where your SPS could be treated offsite BUT I could give your coral a ride south on Feb 3rd if you can find someone that could treat it for you. This would allow you to put some coral in the "bank" till you are ready with the 8' treatment tanks you are planning.

This is not much but the best I can think of to help.
Joe

 

[Allmost]

Very sorry to hear, but dont give up the fight ! there is no reason for AEFW to take out the whole tank.
I have had to deal with them in the past, took a long time to get them under control and see no more damage in my 200G SPS tank, and also a friends 120G. [ I know, a fraction of your sump size ... ] but I would give it a shot ...
dont dose Iodine, elevate K+ levels, feed the corals more [oyster eggs, aminos, and ...] and in turn more water changes to not allow elevation of N an P ...
I wouldnt advice Faltworm stop form KZ .... as for system your size you would need to dose about a full bottel a day, there should be cheaper alternatives for coral food.

really hope you can get them under control. they are the worst pest to be dealing with.

 

[nineball]

Peter,

I will be in Buffalo this coming weekend. I do not have a place where your SPS could be treated offsite BUT I could give your coral a ride south on Feb 3rd if you can find someone that could treat it for you. This would allow you to put some coral in the "bank" till you are ready with the 8' treatment tanks you are planning.

This is not much but the best I can think of to help.
Joe

Thanks very much for the offer Joe. I am actually further ahead with the 8 ft tanks in that they are in, full of water from the display tank and have skimmers, media reactors etc. I'm all set to go except for the lights which are coming hopefully this week. I should be in a position to begin stocking next week if all goes well.

But thanks for the offer, that's way above and beyond.......

Peter

Peter

 

[nineball]

Very sorry to hear, but dont give up the fight ! there is no reason for AEFW to take out the whole tank.
I have had to deal with them in the past, took a long time to get them under control and see no more damage in my 200G SPS tank, and also a friends 120G. [ I know, a fraction of your sump size ... ] but I would give it a shot ...
dont dose Iodine, elevate K+ levels, feed the corals more [oyster eggs, aminos, and ...] and in turn more water changes to not allow elevation of N an P ...
I wouldnt advice Faltworm stop form KZ .... as for system your size you would need to dose about a full bottel a day, there should be cheaper alternatives for coral food.

really hope you can get them under control. they are the worst pest to be dealing with.

I am prepared if I lose all my SPS. Its not that I want to but without a host the worms can't survive and if thats the way to get rid of them then so be it. I realize the worms are a 'natural' hazard but I am absolutely positive they will not return providing I follow the new protocol of double dipping the coral twice a week for two months before putting them into the tank. Of the two 8 foot tanks I have put in the fish room, the first is separated from the second in that they do not share a system water or facilities. the lower tank is for new introductions and the second upper tank is a growth orientated holding tank for established colonies.

I have not and will not be treating anything in the display tank with chemicals. Whatever makes it into the display tank will be a part of the natural ecosystem and nature will take its course.

Peter

 

[Allmost]

Peter, Potassium is part of sea water, seawater concentration of 400 PPM ... feeding the corals more is actually pretty natural too .... what I adviced above, is treating your corals with some good times with good water and alot of food. no medication. it has also been shown that they use iodine, and K+ irritates them.

just saying, there is a way to save them, but I know, these pests can get really frustrating, many times in the past while dealing with them I have thought of just removing all corals and starting new too but ...


either way, best of luck your new QT process sounds okay, except the part where the water came from the display, already containing Acro eating flatworms. hope you are not planning on stocking it soon.

 

[mess7777]

best of luck with the flatworms, at least take your nicest colonies out and treat them first in your new holding tank!! don't let them all die.

 

[snadaud]

Chelidomura

Chelidomura

Greetings team Nineball

I didn't check on this thread for a long time and the progress and videos are fantastic !

Congratulations to all of you !! :beer:

However, I was very sorry to discover on the last page about your AEFW infestation...

Have you considered using the nudibranch Chelidomura to try and get rid of them ?
They exclusively eat flatworms. I am not sure if they will eat AEFW but you could always give them a try.

Besides, they look really good

I did have a mild brown flatworms infestation (not the acro eating kind though) a few years back in a 125gallons tank and they disappeared in a few weeks after I put in 2 of this beautiful nudibranches.

I'm not sure if it is possible to get rid of 100% of a pest in an aquarium your size once it's there... Maybe after all the acros are gone, but that is assuming that the eggs can't go in a dormant stage until their potential hosts are back.

If the chelidomura did work for you, after the AEFW seem to be gone, you could always pull out most of the nudibranches while still leaving a few in to keep the potentially remaining population under control.

Your remaining chelidomura would then either disappear, meaning that they thinned out the flatworms population so much that they eventually starved to death , or keep thriving which would mean that they are still doing a usefull job of keeping the flatworms in check.

As I said above I have no idea if they would eat your find of flatworm but I didn't see any mention of this nudibranch in the thread and thought you might be interested in giving them a try.

Maybe you could test this on a smaller scale by putting some of them in one of your hospital tank with a few heavily infested corals and see what happens ?

Good luck and congratulations again on a great tank and thread !

 

[sfsuphysics]

I would say pull out the turkey baster and squirt corals as you see signs, more likely than not your fish will associate that with food at eat all the flatworms as they get in the water column, however with a tank that size I can understand how that might be a full time job.

 

[Bax]

Peter & Mr Wilson

AEFWs are a horrible experience. I rid my former 600g system of them just over a year and half ago and it was an all consuming effort. I managed to overcome them and save pieces of most all my SPS utilizing Levamisol, it took most of a year to do so. I paid a great price in fish losses due to miss dosing. While it was rewarding to rescue so many of my coral spieces, I have to agree that working within the DT system, especially one so large would be extremely difficult and would really prolong the overall process. With an isolation system such as you are establishing, you can frag from the DT Dip and QT before the isolation tank. This is what I would recomend for most larger sized system after my experience. I would still treat the entire DT at least once with Levamisol after the SPS are completely removed as it will knock down the breeding popoulation quickly.

Sorry to hear of this situation.

Best of luck

 

[RayL]

I just have to say this is by far the nicest tank that I have ever seen and most likely ever will see

Great Job

 

[Bdial]

I saw your tank maintenance video and I was wondering what kind of magnet cleaner you use on the acrylic? Ive been looking for something that big for a while.

 

[mkbtank]

Peter,

Sorry to hear. As usual it sounds like you have a reasonable and healthy attitude towards this event. Just as we have gotten to learn from the good in your build, thank you for also sharing the bad. Another opportunity to learn best practices and also a reality check that there will always be improvements that can be made. Even in the most thoughtful systems. Best of luck as you deal with these pests. And... I'll still take the 8.