I need to get rid of these pests....

And those are flatworms for sure, Here is a picture of mine before I nuked my tank,

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hey, Siylk, thanks for the link. Sorry about what happened to your tank. IS it all better now ?

Would you say that doing an invidiual dip of each piece of rock in the FWE would work??? Sure would reduce the necesity to expose the rest of the tank to the toxins... especially since the meds are so fast acting...?
 
You are about 6-9 months behind me right now...

i had the same problem and Flatworm exit worked wonderfully. I tried the wrasse route, and although i love the fish, didnt work. FWE worked wonderfully. BUT i was super careful to take/syphon/catch (with net)- every dad flatworm i could and they are all gone to this day with no problems. It only took one treatment.

Its the dead ones you need to worry about due to the toxin they secrete. Seriously i have the same tank size and battled the basterds for a while, PM me and i will type out my log of what i did.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8689286#post8689286 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MrMexReefer
hey, Siylk, thanks for the link. Sorry about what happened to your tank. IS it all better now ?

Would you say that doing an invidiual dip of each piece of rock in the FWE would work??? Sure would reduce the necesity to expose the rest of the tank to the toxins... especially since the meds are so fast acting...?

I've got a similar problem in my 12 gal nano and have been getting advice/reading up on it for quite a while now. Your infestation is a bit more severe then mine, but overall, I'd say we are in a similar boat. I (like you it seems) am hesitant to use FWE, considering the die off essentially would kill the tank. A 20 gallon tank doesn't allow a lot of room for error or playing around.

I've picked up some things along the way, but I want to make clear that I'm regurgitating information, and in NO way am I an expert.

One thing I've learned first hand is that the worms can be controlled by decreasing your feedings. I have one fish and a shrimp that get flake everyday and love it. Between the two, I feed maybe 6-7 flakes. This has been going on for about 2 months with no ill effect to the fish or the shrimp that I can see (fat fish :D ). The 'coral' food (mysis, cyclops and DTs) is used twice a week, once after the water change and another time about 3-4 days after. I am religious about water changes and will change up to 1/3 of the tank at a time. The flatworm numbers have decreased significantly and I clean up what I can see with the water change. Yes they are ugly, yes they can irritate your corals, but they are not the worse pest to have in a tank.

Some people swear by 6-line wrasses. There are a few issues with this though. They can become very territorial and can develop a taste for ornamental shrimp. They are jumpers. They also are a border line nano fish, meaning that your not providing enough space for them to be 'happy'. Getting a 'loaner' maybe an option for you, but I have an open top and a dotty back that would not appreciate the new neighbor.

It also seems like your willing to rip apart your tank and dip everything. While this is not a bad idea, the reason I've avoided doing this is that there are going to be quite a few left in your sand bed and other parts of the tank that you cannot remove. While this will immediately decrease the number of pests, it does not solve the reason they have successfully thrived in your tank. In a months time, the population will be back up and you'll be at square one.

The good news (as far as I can tell) is that we are not the only ones with these SOBs swimming around. Many successful, long time reefers have these pop up in their tanks, and I haven't come across one surefire method to rid a tank of these guys, especially in the nano world.

Sorry for the novel. Hopefully it was some help. My next post will be a retelling of the bible using characters from "Finding Nemo". I'm guessing it will be at this point where I am shunned from the community and my keyboard will be taken away. :p
 
thanks for the reply man, i was going to reply via PM but the page keeps freezing. Hahaha that reply was hilarious!! Thanks for the advice... i'll PM you about that FWE once i get home!
 
hahaha thanks for the info TheGent. I think i will try the dips combined with a 6 line (you will probably see my thread later asking to buy one haha). Get it... 50% nuke 50% natural should = 100% effectiveness! haha i wish. You are right tho.. they dont seem to be bothering the tank too much right now, as corals are still growing like crazy. But these dirty little F***ers need to go.
 
jose, im working on some of those zoas from adam :) and i want the purple monti from NewSchool :) i'll see what else is up... i want Zoas man!!!
 
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