flat worms

[raulruiz912]

i have a bad case of flatworms, and have purchased flatworm exit. never used it and have heard different things about it. if i clean out a majority of them out before dosing flatworm exit will i have a spike in nitrate or nitrites with the ones i miss??? info please

 

[fishaholic911]

How big is your tank ?

 

[fishaholic911]

Flat worms usually will not harm anything but if you want to get rid of them do a fresh water dip on all of your rock. Make sure the freash water is the same ph as the salt water.

 

[raulruiz912]

its a 100g main 30g sump and frag.

 

[Akimbo]

Do yourself a favor and just get a Sixline Wrasse. Sixlines will hunt your flatworms day and night and keep the population in check until it gets the last of them. You can also use a Blue Velvet Nudibranch also known as a Blue Velvet Sea Hare. They only eat flatworms but unfortunately have a very low longterm survival rate.

 

[aquaph8]

+1on the wrasse. More natural solutions have always worked out better for me in the long run, rather than dumping chemicals. That way you dont have to worry about anything dead in your tank. Or try both at the same time for twice the attack.

 

[sillygoose]

What about inverts with a six-line wrasse?

 

[BonesCJ]

I have used FW exit twice on my systems and had very good success with it. You want to make darn sure you follow the instructions when you dose as its not the medication thats the issue but the fact that flatworms release a toxin when they die. I siphoned out as many as I physically could, did the treatment and then did a water change and ran lots of carbon, did not lose anything during either treatment except LOTS of Flatworms.

 

[raulruiz912]

thanks for all the feedback

 

[Tanque Verde]

What about inverts with a six-line wrasse?

Depends on the inverts (and possibly the six-line). I added a peppermint to a 26g with a sixline and the sixline gave it fits.

 

[raulruiz912]

if i fresh water dip the rock will it affect the tank if i put it back in?

 

[Bifferwine]

Probably. If you fresh water dip the rock, you kill not only the bad stuff on it, but also the good bacteria. You may have an ammonia and/or nitrite spike if you do that. Freshwater dipping live rock basically kills it.

 

[raulruiz912]

ok thank you for that i would have made a big mess... any one heard of a sapphire damsel? for eating fw

 

[fishaholic911]

What I mean by a F/W dip is

1. remove rock from tank and try to knock of as many worms as you can. What I did was rinsed them in a 5 gallon bucket of salt water.

2. Dip and shake rock in F/W with same ph as your salt for 4 seconds.

3. Do a final rinse in new salt water and put rock back into tank.

If you follw these 3 steps you will not have a problem or even lose any of the rock coloration. I did this exact proceedure on my 300 gallon with no ill effects.

http://s42.photobucket.com/albums/e337/forest321/?action=view&current=TankVideo1mov.flv

 

[fishaholic911]