Levamisole In-Tank Treatment for AEFW

[SPSEMPIRE]

Melvs Reef has a write up on levamisole treatment. I remember reading that the biggest risk when treating for the normal red planarias is the toxins that they release when they die, not from the medication itself. You should remove as many inverts as possible before treatment b/c they will not likely make it. Since you are treating for AEFWs and not the normal red flatworms, which are usually in plague portions, I don't think you have too much to worry about as long as you go by the recommended dosage.

 

[Denadai]

Another option is melafix.

Melafix also kill aefw and you can add in the main tank

Good luck

 

[edandsandy]

Another option is melafix.

Melafix also kill aefw and you can add in the main tank

Good luck

Are you sure you can add Melafix to a reef tank?
You must be talking about a dip of some sort..

 

[Bax]

Sandy

I am SURE you can add the Levamisole to your reef at the 5 grams/300gallons dose.

I know as I did it several times. The only crtitters that really worried me were my brittle stars, so I pulled them out for the doses. It was nail bitting, but OK. Every thing survivied.

My main concern, and something i want everyone who tries this to look for, is AEFW rebound from eggs.

Dips, in tank systemic treatments, nothing, but physical removal beats the eggs. So, if we don't treat long enough, they can come back again and again!

This is why I'm suggesting a 4 week treatment. I'm even considering a follow up dose to my system 3-4 weeks after the 4th treatment. These things are the most persitent pest I've ever encountered!

 

[myaerica]

Where do you get levamisole? The place I use to get it dosent carry it anymore.I dont know if its because its the number one cutting agent in cocaine is why they got rid of it, but I need to find some.

 

[James404]

I was able to get it under the name "Vermisol" from Foys pigeon supply.

 

[pciscott]

+1 If somebody can pm me I have been hitting a wall where to find the Powder???

 

[reefer11]

Hi all, i currently have AEFW's and have been dipping with Coral RX with a Q-tank setup. I was wondering if I can get away from not dosing the display. I have removed all SPS to a separate system for easier dipping. Will this work?

 

[Bax]

Hi all, i currently have AEFW's and have been dipping with Coral RX with a Q-tank setup. I was wondering if I can get away from not dosing the display. I have removed all SPS to a separate system for easier dipping. Will this work?

It can work, if you keep the acros isolated long enough and dip regularly, at least some people have claimed success. But, if you have an established system and you leave behind live rock with any acro encrustation, you are leaving behind a ticking time bomb. The AEFWs will leave eggs in your display, those eggs will hatch, and the AEFWs will rebound. A similar situation to RBs. That, in a nut shell, is why I'm convinceed we need a systemic treatment that runs well longer then the life cycle of the AEFWs.

 

[James404]

For everyone asking, this is where I got it, fast shipping when I used USPS priority.

http://www.foyspigeonsupplies.com/catalog/586.html

 

[Bax]

+1 If somebody can pm me I have been hitting a wall where to find the Powder???

I found it in many versions but I found the purest & least expensive was at a live stock supply web site. Under Goat dewormers you are looking for a product called PROHIBIT, Soluable Drench Powder, this is nearly pure Levamisol. It's about $25 with shipping from the cattlestore.com.

I've heard many of these powdered products are being pulled for "miss use". I'd suggest searching for PROHIBIT the product line is sold as dewormers for many types of domesticated live stock. It is a product of AgriLabs. Their soluable drench powder is the purest I've seen a 52 gram pouch contains 46.8 grams of pure Levamisole hydrochloride in soluable form.

 

[Denadai]

Are you sure you can add Melafix to a reef tank?
You must be talking about a dip of some sort..

I´m sure. You can add in the main tank.

 

[James404]

Did the second treatment last night, everything went well. I left the skimmer running, it seemed to help with oxygen in the tank. Had no overflow issues with it either. Saw a few brittle stars kick the bucket. Most of the corals didn't even close their polyps this time. No water change was done, simply fired back up the carbon/GFO reactor after about 5 hours.

 

[James404]

I found it in many versions but I found the purest & least expensive was at a live stock supply web site. Under Goat dewormers you are looking for a product called PROHIBIT, Soluable Drench Powder, this is nearly pure Levamisol. It's about $25 with shipping from the cattlestore.com.

I've heard many of these powdered products are being pulled for "miss use". I'd suggest searching for PROHIBIT the product line is sold as dewormers for many types of domesticated live stock. It is a product of AgriLabs. Their soluable drench powder is the purest I've seen a 52 gram pouch contains 46.8 grams of pure Levamisole hydrochloride in soluable form.

Unfortunately Prohibit and the similar products are pretty much nonexistent right now, at least from my research. The only place I had seen it for sale, was one listing on ebay, for a crazy amount of money.

 

[Atomikk]

Did the second treatment last night, everything went well. I left the skimmer running, it seemed to help with oxygen in the tank. Had no overflow issues with it either. Saw a few brittle stars kick the bucket. Most of the corals didn't even close their polyps this time. No water change was done, simply fired back up the carbon/GFO reactor after about 5 hours.

Did you see any floaters (ie flatworms)?

 

[James404]

Did you see any floaters (ie flatworms)?

Nope didn't see any this time, I'm hoping that I got the majority of them after the first treatment. Two more to go and then I will keep a close eye on the corals and do occasional dips just to confirm they are gone.

 

[joeyvu]

Following your thread closely, James...Hopefully, we can get rid of this devil bugs...
Keep us posted...Plan to do the same in my system which plague half of my corals...
Joey

 

[fishguy597]

How long does it take the eggs to hatch? I thought it was like 21 days or something. Anyone have any idea if it works on monti eating nudies?

 

[CleveYank]

I used the levasole powder for my successful and well documented RED PLANARIA intank kill experiments.
I had found that you had to keep the mixture derived from the powder in much less concentrations than 5 grams per 300 gallons. And a couple folks that did not follow my directions on my planaria thread had near COMPLETE losses.


My SPS tests with my levasole powder mixed at 1/2 teaspoon in 240 ml water was that at a rate ABOVE 5ml per gallon of system water that SPS and plating monties died in a DIFFERENT parasite in-tank eradication test. You would see instant oozing and tissue degrade on some and all would be pale dead sloughed sticks by the next day. This was testing that I did against montipora eating nudis, but the concentration and my dosage is the main point I'm mentioning.

My point is that I suspect that the boulus/tablets have quite a bit of filler in them. Also, there are about 4 or 5 companies that produce "Levamisole Hydrochloride" and the key to any of them is making sure you are aware of concentrations of "active ingredient". I suspect that if you took 5 grams of "drench" and put it in a 300 gallon system you'd see very dismal results due to concentration of the powder.

Either way, good luck on your trial.

 

[James404]

I used the levasole powder for my successful and well documented RED PLANARIA intank kill experiments.
I had found that you had to keep the mixture derived from the powder in much less concentrations than 5 grams per 300 gallons. And a couple folks that did not follow my directions on my planaria thread had near COMPLETE losses.


My SPS tests with my levasole powder mixed at 1/2 teaspoon in 240 ml water was that at a rate ABOVE 5ml per gallon of system water that SPS and plating monties died in a DIFFERENT parasite in-tank eradication test. You would see instant oozing and tissue degrade on some and all would be pale dead sloughed sticks by the next day. This was testing that I did against montipora eating nudis, but the concentration and my dosage is the main point I'm mentioning.

My point is that I suspect that the boulus/tablets have quite a bit of filler in them. Also, there are about 4 or 5 companies that produce "Levamisole Hydrochloride" and the key to any of them is making sure you are aware of concentrations of "active ingredient". I suspect that if you took 5 grams of "drench" and put it in a 300 gallon system you'd see very dismal results due to concentration of the powder.

Either way, good luck on your trial.

Thank you for your insight, I agree there is a lot of filler in some of these prodcuts, but we calculated with the actual active ingredients. In the pill form, vermisol has 23.6mg of levamisole in each pill. The powder contains 7.5 grams of active ingredient levamisole per 100 grams of product.