Killing Flat Worms!!!

[spoofer]

Hello all, Tonight i'm helping a friend elimiate flat worms from his tank. He has a 65 with 15 gallon fuge. I've eliminated flat worms from my own tank and other friends in the past and have been very succesful.

So, I just wanted to see if anyone had any more advice from what i've done in the past to combat the worms to ensure the fish live safely through the extermination.

1. I use Flatworm Exit - about double the recommended dose
2. For three days leading up to the extirmination I manually suck out the worms that can be found on the rock, and use a turkey baster to flush out the cracks.
3. I run a Carbon Reactor at higher speed on the display with extra rounds of carbon.
4. I use a Sock on the drain line to the sump to catch all the dead guys.
5. I have a volume (15%) of water change ready to flush out once i'm done.
6. -we explored the idea of creating a hosptial tank and removing the fish, but we decided to pass based on the lack of equipment and stress/ time involved in catching them in the aqurium.

My buddy's says he's sucked all the visible worms off the rock for the last two nights, and we'll do the same before the dosing tonight.

We probably won't kick the Reactor on for 15-20 minutes after dosing, and we'll be running high flow in the tank during the process, but this will be the toughest time for the fish- yet i want to be sure we give adequate time for the 'flatworm exit' to do it's job and i'm not sure if the carbon reactor would effect the concentration of the 'flatworm exit poison'

Any other thoughts or ideas to make it a smooth process? like i said i've had good experiences in the past- the only death was the first time i did if a few years agao and it was one six line wrasse.

Thanks for reading!

 

[eshook]

When I used flatworm exit I did not dose all at once. I dosed about 1/3 to start. Waited for the flatworms to start moving and dying off - suctioning them out as I went. After the inital die-off (5 maybe 10 min). I did another 1/3 and suctioned again (2-5 min). Then the last third. It didn't seem that a lot of stuff was stresed, because the die-off was not all at once.

Just something to think about.

 

[spoofer]

thanks for the feedback i appreciate it and i'll let you know how it goes.

 

[eshook]

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[snorvich]

I pretty much did what your plan is but I added the second dose (to bring it to 200% of suggested dosage) after 20 minutes. While the chemical is active my return pump was off but my powerheads were on so as to circulate the chemical. Use the turkey baster to blow into the rocks. Gently siphon off the dying flatworms. After the time of exposure (45 minutes), use carbon then do a water change. Worked well for me.

 

[Lowman]

I've always dosed at least twice to get rid of them.

 

[spoofer]

Thanks everyone, another succesful termination! I doubled the dose and dosed it in two seperate batches about 15 minutes apart and kicked on the carbon reactor(hydro-carbon) about 30 minutes after 1st dosing. We used the power heads and a good oll fashion turkey baster to flush them out, and we went through 3 filter socks to catch them all. We also put a media bag of bulk reef carbon in the sump.

The fish did fine, and the corals shrunk up, but i checked in this morning and my friend said everything is kickn' soooo

Thanks again for all the feedback, Happy Reefing!

 

[spoofer]

oh, and we did a water change about 3 hours after it began

 

[snorvich]

Good job. That process works well but as mentioned above, it is best to do it a second time just to be sure (perhaps 2 weeks apart)

 

[thegrun]

I treated my tank for flat worm today (Flatworm Exit). All has gone well so far. I manage to vacuum out quite a few before I started the treatment and sucked up all the ones that died. I put in fresh carbon, any suggestions as to when I should replace the carbon, after 1 day, 3 days, a week? Please advise.

 

[snorvich]

Don't put the carbon in too quickly (about 2 hours). Then a couple of days should be sufficient.