Okay, here's the update as promised. I used one full bottle on my 155 plus 25 sump, I'm guessing maybe 130-150 total gallons, so about double dose. I had siphoned all I could see or get at every few days for about one to two weeks without a noticeable change in numbers. I would call the load moderate to heavy, some mats on rocks and in back, 50-100 visible on glass in lowest flow areas, but none on 90% of sand surface. They began dying quickly, I ran a diatom filter without diatoms just to filter out the worms because it has a pretty good flow rate. I actively siphoned out as best I could running back into sump through nylon stocking bag. About 10 minutes after they started dying, I started a Fluval cannister filter with 2 lbs. of Kent reef carbon. I also put stockings full of carbon on the outlet of both overflows into sump. All the carbon is still running 2 days later. I changed out 60 gallons a few hours after the dosing, and another 30 gallons yesterday.
All corals and my LTA shrank up quickly, all fish dashed for cover. So far, I lost my pair of squamipinis anthias, I saw them alive at 8:00am the next day and dead at 9:00am, so I know they died 18 hours after dosing. The other fish (hippo and sailfin tang, 2 striped shrimp gobies, pair of maroon clowns and a black spot Genocanthus angel are now out and eating. They look slightly frayed, my guess is they got frantic all massed together in the rocks. All except the clowns are still a little skittish. My serpent star, anemone, clam, cleaner shrimp, urchins, snails, hermits, tubeworms and pods all appear to be fine so far. The SPS all have extended polyps, but one acropora and a merulina are slightly faded in blotches. The xenia and mushrooms look much better than initially,and are almost completely extended 48 hours later. Other softies recovered within 24 hours or less. The nitrate level bumped from 0.1 ppm to 1.0 ppm. I don't normally run a skimmer but I did put my old one (a Berlin) in a few hours after the dosing. It's not pulling out much skimmate. Initially a little bit of very black gunk - carbon particles I think. I expected more reddish stuff but haven't seen more than a trace of green-black skimmate. And - so far no flatworms in sight. I plan to dose again, FW or not, in about 3 weeks if I can find some more Flatworm Exit. I like others, am pretty convinced it's the worm toxin not the medication that causes the deaths.
So, the summary version about 48 hours after double dosing - SPS with minor bleaching but alive so far, LPS didn't like it but recovering fast - ditto for softies. Other inverts, including LTA are fine. Pair of previously healthy anthias died, other fish look ok so far. Active carbon filtration and aggressively siphoning all worms did not avoid all deaths. Though I am sad about the anthias, overall I am relieved to have (for now) gotten rid of the ugly worms and the worries about their crashing at an unpredictable time and doing even worse damage to the tank.
Hope this wasn't too long - just wanted to repay for all the info I've gotten from others in my long research period before taking the plunge!
Johara
Tha'ts the killer. Once in a while a particular wrasse, scooter blenny, or even mandarin will maybe eat one, but they are very rare! The only guarenteed predator is a type of nudibranch I believe, because that's all they eat (see article in Advanced Aquarist). But those aren't easy to come by.
