flatworm exit questions

[Snakebyt]

I have a flatworm problem...I am wanting to treat using Salifert flatworm exit. I really do not have a way to run large amounts of carbon after treating. I was thinking about doing a 60-80% waterchange about half hour after treating, would doing a waterchange that large do more harm than good?

Any suggestions will be appreciated

 

[Snakebyt]

anyopne?

 

[Poorcollegereef]

yeah, run the carbon! a 60-80 percent water change might shock your system and depending on what you have stocked, you could loose alot. I really recommend the carbon because flatworms release some serious toxins when they die and carbon does a great job removing the toxins, not just deluting them with a water change. Plus, if you are talking about treating the 100 gallon tank, I would think that 60-80 gals would be expensive and time consuming... depending on you personal system of water changes. I felt that buying carbon was cheaper in the long run.

Also, just on a note, but my highly trusted LFS owner suggested to use a 150% treatment of FWeXit for me and then to start running carbon. FWexit worked wonders for me and after 5 months im flatworm free

 

[dc]

Check out the Salifert forum. I'm sure Habib can advise you. Thankfully I've never needed to use it.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?forumid=196

 

[Slartibartfast]

I just did a 150% treatment and it worked wonders. All the flatworms were dead in about a minute. I treated with about 2 lbs of carbon in a cannister filter for a day. No water changes. I didn't lose anything, or notice any real issues from the treatment.

Be sure and siphon as many as you can ahead of time. That will help a lot too.

Here is a before and after on one of my rocks:

 

[Snakebyt]

lets say i treat, run 2lbs of carbon, how long do i need to run the carbon?24 hours and then dispose of it? What rate should i run the water through the carbon?
what has got me kinda scared is , a local reefer treated his tank, ran carbon, did a 30% waterchange, and the next morning, everything in his tank was dead. I do not want that to happen

 

[Slartibartfast]

The instructions say you want something like 1lb per 50 gallons, or thereabouts. I don't remember exactly. I ran for 24 hours because it just seemed like the thing to do. I don't know if the rate is that critical on the carbon. You just want to make sure it goes through the carbon under pressure, so that all the water has to go through it.

However, I siphoned flatworms for about an hour before I started. You just siphon them into a mesh bag. When I was done, there were almost no visible flatworms.

Then, when I dosed flatworm exit, I saw a bunch of new dead ones. They kind of come out of the rock. I siphoned as many of those as I could also. The cannister filter I ran had both carbon and filter floss, to catch flaworm bodies. The idea is that you want to have as few dying in the tank as you can get away with.

Find out if your friend siphoned his tank first. I have heard of lots of people who had great success, but I have never heard of anyone having any problems when they followed the directions.

 

[Snakebyt]

i am thinking that his downfall was not using any kind of canister for carbon, he just put a couple of bags of it in the sump.
Guess i am going to need a pretty large canister for 3 gallons of carbon

 

[Slartibartfast]

The water has to pass through the carbon under pressure. Just tossing it in the sump is going to do nothing.

You can just use any old cannister filter. Most of them have places for funky bacteria culture media like those little tube things. Just replace that with a few bags of carbon and you will be fine. Also put some cheap filter floss on your returns, so you can catch any that float into the overflow.

The most important thing is lots of siphoning, so the die-off is minimal.