Levamisole In-Tank Treatment for AEFW

[Logzor]

I started battling these guys as well, do you guys think if I remove all acropora corals from my main display and set up a QT, dip in Coral Rx weekly and scape eggs for 4 months would,
a: I starve out any AEFW in the main display tank?
b: Battle and eradicate the AEFW from the QT Tank, maybe even hit the QT with some LEviamisole?
c: Those acro corals that dont seem to be affected placed in a non infected QT

Any advise?

My Thread

Yes I think that would work. Shoot for at least 8 dips on all of your acros. Make sure to baste a bit while they are being dipped.

 

[DrHarryLopez]

Yes I think that would work. Shoot for at least 8 dips on all of your acros. Make sure to baste a bit while they are being dipped.

Weekly dips?

 

[flamron]

I'd dip every 5-6 days.

You might look at Bayer insecticide as a dip. In my testing, it was highly effective without stressing out all of my test coral. I used 10ml of insecticide in 1/2 cup of water for 5 minutes. Do not go longer, or you may see adverse reactions.

 

[BuckeyeTodd]

Keep in mind, folks, while you may get away with a few treatments (which seem fairly harsh), you really need to be able to treat using this method 6-8 times. These AEFW are not going to go away with 2-3 treatments, I can assure you of that. Sure, there are going to be a few people who think they got rid of them all...but don't fool yourself. AEFW are very very ornery critters.

It is very likely one egg or one adult survives, then slowly repopulates, which could take months to actually notice/identify on larger colonies. Considering that no AEFW are actually being extracted from the system, I find this to be very likely (compared to actually extracting them via dipping).

Point being, I would be very wary of this treatment unless you think your corals can handle 6-8 dips.

The best approach would be to spend 1-2 months basing the corals nightly, scrap any eggs you can find. You basically want to make sure your corals are in the best health possible. THEN proceed with this method.

This is war, you can't just napalm these thing out of their bunkers, you need ground troops too.

Here is my plan of attack.
Day 1-Dip RX
Day 5-Dip RX
Day 10-Levamisole
Day 13-Dip
Day 17-Levamisole
Day 20-Dip
Day 23-Levamisole
Day 27-Dip
Day 30-Levamisole

This in the corse of a month gets five dips and four levamisole treatments. This has to break their life cycle right?

 

[Jay4Robin]

I am left with chalices,acans,and a scaly.
one setosa and 2 stylos.

And a few fish.

It caused a cycle in my tank

I feel liberated from these pests. I will let my wrasse eat any pests and let them starve for about a month or so.

I will have about 20 new frags in quarantine for a month. If I ever get them again i will just turn my tank into a jello mold.

 

[hk855]

From my understanding to eradicate without a doubt you need to span several generations . I recall hearing something about 20 days, I don't recall of that's lifespan or incubation period. If that's the case then probably 40-60 days as a minimum from start to finish as a treatment period. Something to remember with levamisole is that it isn't a poison like some pest treatments. It just paralyses them so it's like trying to kill something with aspirin. The young are more susceptible but it sounds like at least some adults can survive without issue and therefore you may not break the cycle till that one lays it's last egg they hatch and then you kill them before they mature. I plan on the following for my treatment.

Day 1 dip and levamisole
Day 10 dip and levimasole
Day 21 levamisole
Day 28 dip levamisole
Day 42 levamisole
Day 56 dip levamisole

I may drop the day 21 and add one at 63. I only have enough to treat my tank 7 or 8 times and I want to save some to treat new corals so 6 doses is what I'm planing on. 4 to kill them all and 2 follow ups to make sure they're dead, I'll probably add two or three treatments of interceptor as well at week two and three. I suspect red bugs as well(been reefing for years with a lot of frags upgrades and downgrades so...)and might as well kill everything I can.

 

[Bax]

Now we are getting on the right track.

I dipped and isolated my acros then "cleaned up " the system with the Levi.

Despite all this effort, I still have AEFW nightmares and inspect my SPS constantly, warry of AEFW rebound.

What Logzor says in post #659 is spot on.

Do what ever you are comfortable with to reduce the population and remove adults for as long a duration as you can stand it.

I isolated all my SPS. I think this is important and makes it easier to check your corals. It also starves AEFWs out in sections of the system without SPS. Or at least they can not establish and breed there.

I do not believe large colnies can be saved unless you have the facility to handle them.

Be sure your system is clean and ready for a beating, as this is Biological Warfare! Then and only then dose the Levi, several times as we've been dicussing, and keep dipping!

Levi is NOT A MAGIC BULLET by any stretch. It is a tool in the arsenal, that's it!

Sure there's an alternate solution. Strip your system of all SPS for four months or so. Then start over with properly QT'd and dipped SPS. Quite frankly, I think that is by far the EASIEST route. I can't go that route as I cant just toss out my corals without fighting for them, but that's just me.

Go into this treatment knowing that it will be a long battle and your system will require a period of time to recover and it will be a lot of work. For me, seeing a piece of coral no matter how small survive this battle is worth the fight. Again, that's just me.

 

[Jay4Robin]

Well I did lose a few of my large fiji chromisis. They did not handle the cycle to good
My water looks much better after a few water changes.
I changed my rocks in my reactor and HA is starting to die.
My refugium looks much cleaner after the red legs cleaned things up.


I have over 20 frags on hold at wet thumbs.

My new melanomas wrasse has been picking clean my rock work. I am also getting a mystery wrasse this week.

In about a month I will get my new frags. I know that Dan has put all of my frags in quarantine. I will make sure every frag I get is removed from the base and they will be dipped. I will set up frag racks in my display when I get the corals and I will dip every coral every other day when I get them for about a week.

 

[SoCal LowBaller]

anymore updates

 

[Pauliwalnuts]

Imo, THIS THREAD SHOULD'VE BEEN CLOSED A MONTH AGO. Most people I know, that have tried Levamisole for an in tank treat for AEFW's, has had a tank crash.

 

[James404]

If you dose properly you shouldn't have a tank crash, I can only recall one or two people with issues in this thread...myself I just opted to toss all my SPS and start over...

 

[Jay4Robin]

If you dose properly you shouldn't have a tank crash, I can only recall one or two people with issues in this thread...myself I just opted to toss all my SPS and start over...

Properly?

There is no real proper protocol for treating a tank.
Every tank is different.
The AEFW are dead but the die off of my bacteria(zeovite reactor) caused my PO4 to go crazy.

I blame nobody. I was prepared for the worse. I sleep better knowing that i can start fresh and not worry about AEFW for now.

 

[James404]

By properly I meant at the quantities that were originally outlined, however this a moot point, obviously this treatment didn't end up being what all had hoped it would.

 

[Bax]

By properly I meant at the quantities that were originally outlined, however this a moot point, obviously this treatment didn't end up being what all had hoped it would.

Yes that is absolutely true, Levamisole is not a magic bullet.

And Jay4 robin is right also, every system is so different, that it is evident that one proticol will not fit every system

pauliwalnuts

You are wrong. If we don't try and document, we will learn nothing. Threads like this should never be closed.

One thing we still know for sure, if you have AEFWs, you are in for a long haul, no matter which path you chose to follow.

Proper QT is only means to an AEFW free system.

 

[DrHarryLopez]

It's unfortunate but ALL corals should be QT'd for at least 6 weeks before placing into your system.

 

[acroholicreefer]

I started battling these guys as well, do you guys think if I remove all acropora corals from my main display and set up a QT, dip in Coral Rx weekly and scape eggs for 4 months would,
a: I starve out any AEFW in the main display tank?
b: Battle and eradicate the AEFW from the QT Tank, maybe even hit the QT with some LEviamisole?
c: Those acro corals that dont seem to be affected placed in a non infected QT

Any advise?

My Thread

Yes, the only way I was able to get rid of them is by dipping each individual acro in Coral Rx and brushing the eggs off with a tooth brush while dipping.

Make sure you set up a temporary container for holding the acros so you can dip all of them before putting any pieces back into your systems. I had to do this 2 times in 5 days before I really saw the results but I could tell after one dip that I had gotten rid of the bite marks. I continued dipping in 5 day intervals until for a total of 4 times (20 day process).

At the same time I purchased 2 leopard wrasses for both systems. It was by far the best decision that I have ever made. Not only am I sure that these guys were an essential part of getting rid of AEFW's for me, they are by far my favorite fish.

Those are really the only two ways to get rid of AEFW that I am aware of.

 

[Bax]

It's unfortunate but ALL corals should be QT'd for at least 6 weeks before placing into your system.

Yes QT is an absolute nessecity for SPS corals! :fish1:

And I think dipping should be done twice a week if the coral can handle it. That's is a species by species determination.

 

[BuckeyeTodd]

I'm about to set up my qt for my acros. The plan is to take water from my 150 and fill the 36.

I am going to need to cut the acros off the rocks. Is there a good way to do this, or just bone cutters. Some of my faster growers have a base the size of a baseball, how can you cut through these with just bone cutters? Or should I take a chisel and cut out the whole acro with a little rock on bottom?

How long do I need to do this for? The plan is to put everything on a frag plug and put egg crate in bottom of qt. Weekly the corals will get dipped and the egg crate cleaned. I'm thinking 8 weeks???

Is there anything else I haven't considered?

 

[flamron]

8 weeks is a good length. I'd dip every 5-6 days.

 

[BuckeyeTodd]

Do I need to move my styophora colony to the QT, or is it strictly acropora and millipora?