Fluke Tabs Solved My Blue Clove Polyp Problem!

We moved the display tank on Friday. Since I only had 1 tab left for the 180, I made a 10 gal dip bin with a fluke tab in it. Soaked everything that had bcp or was in contact with them for 10 min at the high dose; soaked every bit of live rock (aquascape was only 6 primary rocks-all over 25#). When I set it back up, I made sure to pour every drop of water from that bin into the tank. No sign of the bcp at this time; massive die off of microfauna - same as before. Tomorrow, I'll degunk the tank. No carbon; no skimmer at this time.
If it comes back, I"ll probably go ahead and replace the rock and toss whatever else it grown on into a noxious death by acid.
I have some softies that I"m eager to return to the DT, so I"ll post up as soon as I can grow sympodium in it again :)
 
FINAL ASSESSMENT: Guys and gals, I wanted to give an update after using the fluke tabs to treat my blue clove polyp problem.

1. I had a severe blue clove polyp problem. It seemed like everyday they would spread to new locations. I had them on all rocks, in betweek zoas, glass, sand bed, etc... There was no end to them and everytime I tried to remove them, it seemed like i made the problem worse.

2. my tank is 175 gallon bowfront with 30 gallon sump.

3. I dissolved 2 tabs in a glass of water and dumped the contents in my sump.

4. GFO, Charcoal were removed, and skimmer stopped.

DAY 1 - NO CHANGE

DAY 2 - Not much of a change. Cloves were a little smaller.

DAY 3 - Cloves smaller in size

DAY 4 - Cloves even smaller.

DAY 5 - Cloves much smaller.

DAY 6 - Resumed skimmer and charcoal. Performed 30 gallon change.

My feeling is that even though the skimmer is started and charcoal added, there will still be trace amounts of the drug in the water which will still be treating.

DAY 7 - Performed another water change of 30 gallons.

All cloves are almost gone or tiny dots now.

I will performed another 30 gallons on day 10.

Every single clove polyp is gone for good. The treatment worked. It has been more than 1 month now. No ill effects on any of organism.

I lost my COLT coral in the process. All other SPS and LPS are fine. I removed the coco worm and toadstool prior to treatment.
 
sunilp said:
FINAL ASSESSMENT: Guys and gals, I wanted to give an update after using the fluke tabs to treat my blue clove polyp problem.

1. I had a severe blue clove polyp problem. It seemed like everyday they would spread to new locations. I had them on all rocks, in betweek zoas, glass, sand bed, etc... There was no end to them and everytime I tried to remove them, it seemed like i made the problem worse.

2. my tank is 175 gallon bowfront with 30 gallon sump.

3. I dissolved 2 tabs in a glass of water and dumped the contents in my sump.

4. GFO, Charcoal were removed, and skimmer stopped.

DAY 1 - NO CHANGE

DAY 2 - Not much of a change. Cloves were a little smaller.

DAY 3 - Cloves smaller in size

DAY 4 - Cloves even smaller.

DAY 5 - Cloves much smaller.

DAY 6 - Resumed skimmer and charcoal. Performed 30 gallon change.

My feeling is that even though the skimmer is started and charcoal added, there will still be trace amounts of the drug in the water which will still be treating.

DAY 7 - Performed another water change of 30 gallons.

All cloves are almost gone or tiny dots now.

I will performed another 30 gallons on day 10.

Every single clove polyp is gone for good. The treatment worked. It has been more than 1 month now. No ill effects on any of organism.

I lost my COLT coral in the process. All other SPS and LPS are fine. I removed the coco worm and toadstool prior to treatment.
Click to expand...

Really glad it worked for you. Another successful use of Fluke Tabs to get rid of those little devils. For many folks, getting up the nerve to actually use these in our beloved reefs is probably the hardest part.
 
I've read the entire thread and my concern is for the microfauna, pods, mysids, and various crustaceans that I've tried so hard to keep alive in my system. So far, it sounds like using the fluke tabs has mixed results on crustaceans such as shrimp. I hate my blue cloves, but since I"m about to move to a bigger tank I may as well nuke my current rock and re-start with some fresh LR.
 
bushnell said:
I cant seem to find fluke tabs here in Canada. This product has similar ingrediants. Is it the same thing?

http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/md-mcl100/Mardel+Clout+Fish+Medication+-+100+Tablet.html
Click to expand...

That is Clout, and while it is made by the same company as the one that made Fluke Tabs, it is not the same medication. I had a PM conversation with a fellow reefer that wanted to use Clout, and it did not kill his Blue Clove Polyps.

My information was via PM only, so take it for what it is worth, but that is what I was told.
 
rlpardue said:
I've read the entire thread and my concern is for the microfauna, pods, mysids, and various crustaceans that I've tried so hard to keep alive in my system. So far, it sounds like using the fluke tabs has mixed results on crustaceans such as shrimp. I hate my blue cloves, but since I"m about to move to a bigger tank I may as well nuke my current rock and re-start with some fresh LR.
Click to expand...

If you are thinking of using Fluke Tabs, I would just count on losing your crustaceans and if they live, then you have a bonus.

My 300 gallon reef was back on track shortly after I treated. Main issue I had to deal with post treatment was a decent cyano bloom, but Chemi-Clean made short work of it.

Do not use fluke Tabs unless you are comfortable with the risks, is the best advice I can give anyone thinking about it.

If you have not done so yet, read this entire thread. I can tell you that this thread is the single best information resource for this use of Fluke Tabs on the internet right now. Before this there were none, basically. The collective experience of everyone posting here is very valuable, and I, for one, appreciate everyone's posts in it.
 
I have been tagging along this thread for several months now. First, a little history of how and why. I came across it researching a treatment for BCP for a fellow reefer in my area whose 200-300 gallon tank was just being overrun with the nuisance. I was over his house to pickup a couple frags of zoas when I saw it. It was devastating to see how it had taken over his tank and how it had affected his corals of all types. He was desperate. I came home and searched RC under the keywords "kill clove polyps" and I came across this thread. I told him of it, he read it and then decided to try the treatment. He got a hold of the dosage and treated his tank and lo and behold his nightmare according to him is over and tank is on the rebound :celeb1:

However, this is not the end of the story. I don't know if it was from him, or from another reefer from whom I picked up a frag and then found out later on is also dealing with this pest, but somehow it has been introduced into my tank. Interestingly, it started to grow in an area where I did not put any of the potentially infected frags but on only on rock at the top of my tank. These zoa frags were placed on the bottom of my tank. In any event, about a month after putting the frags in my tank the polyps appeared. I am lucky as I seem to only have it on the one rock but it has been spreading at a good pace so I figured I best get to it before it became my nuisance as well! I got one tab and quartered it. I have a 28 nano and figuring for sand and rock I have 20-25gal of water so a 1/4 tab should be enough.
I started the treatment Wednesday afternoon. I had considered doing a dip outside of tank with the affected rock but after consultation decided to treat entire tank in case there is some I don't see. I removed a baby toadie leather before treatment and gave to a friend. The tank is an LPS/zoa dominated tank with emphasis on Acans, very very nice acans, as well as favia, leptastrea and very nice Zs n Ps. Tank also has several sps, two mini maxi nems, discosoma and yuma rics as well as fish. Inverts are a couple nassarius and a couple astrea snails and a couple red leg hermits. Followed the lead of the others in turning off skimmer, reactor etc. After 24 hrs polyps seemed to not be extended and closing up. I am now 48 hrs into treatment and polyps are completely closed. I can see the little gray balls were the polyps would be extending from but there is not a polyp open. I am posting a few pics. The first is from 2 weeks ago when I was shooting a pic of pectinia and when I really made the decision to treat because the pic showed it in a way that my naked eye didn't see it and then just a few min ago to show you the difference in 48 hours. Forgive the poor photo skills!
2 weeks ago before treatment
IMG_0037_zpsf37d4d56.jpg

IMG_0023_zpsb2ed6845.jpg

today, 48 hrs into the treatment
IMG_0038_zpsc748f4df.jpg

IMG_0039_zps90e70dde.jpg


After 48 hours, no corals of any type seem affected at all, nems show no effect, snails are fine and fish are fine. I don't see hermits but I don't see them a lot anyway so don't know about them. So far so very good. Actually was looking in tank and did see one of the hermits doing its thing grazing on LR!! Even better
 
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My leather is still doing fine. I put a coco worm in a week ago he is fine. My guess is all of the traces of the fluke tabs are gone
 
Ok... I'm taking the plunge. Did a 25 gallon water change today. Used that water and set up a frag tank with a heater and skimmer. I took out my cheato (to save as many pods as I can) and as many snails and crabs as I could catch. I'm going to wait till tomorrow to dose my tank. I have about 130 gallons of water so I will do 1 1/3 of a tab. I'm dealing with red clove polyps myself and it looks like cyano eww.
 
Thanks, Dave!

I'm at the end of day 4 of treatment here. 20g tank (no sump); I dissolved roughly a 5th-6th of a tab. Blue cloves look dead now, and I'm going to try to vacuum out as much of the tissue as I can, soon. Only other casualty seems to be a pink sponge that was growing on the LR. My RBTA got stressed, but hung in there, and is more expanded today. everything else seems fine (Torches, chalices, acans, duncan, acropora, monitpora, zoas, palys, etc). The amphipods were still moving around yesterday, so they may be fine too.

Does anyone know if this drug has any effect on vermetid snails (pest no.2)?

--Lars
 
Chef - can you post a pic of the red polyps?

After about 9 weeks, my BCP came back. Again. My treatment is on p6 of this thread. I accidentally did a 1/2 dose - 1 tab on a 180 followed by a strong dip when I moved the tank - 1 tab in a 20 gal tub that everything got a 20-40 min bath in. All affected rocks and frags were moved over in that tub so many of them got much longer - up to 2 hours soak. I then added that water to the tank when I set it back up. Looked good til last week...

I think that we are all looking at half a dozen species here. I'm seeing some for sale at a reputable store in S Tampa, despite my pleas that they get rid of it. Fools...
 
I just wanted to add my experience eradicating pulsing xenia from my tank using Fluke Tabs. I tried the rock soak method using .5 tab in a bucket of water, the Xenia laughed at me. So, I dissolved the remaining 1.5 tabs in about 2-3 gallons of tank water and dipped a large rock covered with xenia for 5 minutes. I turned off the skimmer and phosphate reactor.
Day 1: Not much difference
Day 2: Xenia started to look like it was pulsing less
Day 3: Xenia definitely droopy
Fast forward to day 6, Xenia definitely on it's way out, most turning a bit brown on the ends and fading away
Day 7 I did a fairly large water change, turned skimmer and phosphate reactor back on

Tomorrow will be 2 weeks since treatment and almost all Xenia is gone, I am left with some stubs, but I don't think they'll come back. I didn't lose any Mexican Turbos and a coral banded shrimp that I didn't care for anyway seems no worse for the wear, it did molt 2nd day of treatment.

Thanks again Acropoaddict for supplying my tabs, my tank looks sooooo much better without all that Xenia!
 
I meant to add, I also didn't lose any corals, I have mostly lps, Hammer, Frogspawn, Chalice, and a couple of plating monti's. All seem fine.
 
Apr 9 - 12:00 NOON, I dissolved approx. 1/5-1/6 fluke tab in some water and added to my 20 gallon DT (no sump). Skimmer off.

DAY 1:
Apr 9 - 10:00PM: the RBTA is shrunken, and the cloves look unhappy, but it is night, so...
Apr 10 - 8:00AM: cloves definitely shrunken. RBTA somewhat shrunken, fish seem cautious.

DAY 2:
Apr 10 - 12:00 NOON: Bubble tip anemone just closed up. Small mystery anemone doesn't seem to be too bothered. The pink sponge doesn't look so good.
Apr 10 - 3:00PM: I'm noticing that the water is a bit cloudy, and the tank is beginning to smell bad. RBTA has is showing its tentacles a bit again. (was completely contracted earlier).

DAY 3:
Apr 11 - 12:00 NOON: pink sponge is definitely receding. Aphipods seem to be doing fine, as are the hermit crabs. Blue cloves are getting smaller...

DAY 4:
Apr 13 - 9:30am: water is cloudy, I think the blue cloves are dead; I touched some of them yesterday and they fell apart. Time to start vacuuming them out, if possible, and doing water changes. Pink sponge is toast. Everything else seems to be doing ok. The RBTA is more out today. Hermit crabs are still fine.
Apr 13 - NOON: started up the skimmer. Water changes tomorrow!

Apr 14 - 1pm: 5 gallon water change.
Apr 16 - 1pm: 2 gallon water change.
Apr 17 - 1pm: 3 gallon water change.
Apr 18 - 8pm: 2 gallon water change.

Need to vacuum up more dead blue cloves.. water quality can't be too good right now. Amphipods are still around and moving. No sign of life from the vermetid snails, so maybe a 2-fer-1 here!

some pics:

Day 2:
20130410-_DSC2001.jpg


20130410-_DSC2007.jpg


Day 3:
20130411-_DSC2012.jpg


Day 4:
20130413-_DSC2066.jpg


Day 6:
20130415-_DSC2308.jpg


at this point, May 12, those rocks are really clean :). The vermetid snails, however were just stunned for a while, it seems. The collinista snails, I think, all died, but I have a bunch in the QT tank, so I can reseed.

Thanks, Dave.
 
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