Pests treatment

[Allmost]

hello all, so after reading multiple replies to check for pests, I finally decided to look around the tank for pests last night and I see alot of flat worms, red looking small things, in the sump in some of the reactors and ... . I do have a mandarin so I guess he is taking care of the ones in the tank but not sure if my corals are affected ! some are growing and colooring nice, some arent! so it got me thinking.

besides that I have a little crab ISsues, which I am hoping to take care of wtih a trp.

as the AEFW goes, any successfull treatments ? I do have another tank,. but not lighting and the water is not good enough for SPS.

any Ideas ? opinions ? could I have any other pests ? I only see AEFW so I guess thats the popular pest lol

any help is greatly appreciate. I really hope to bring the color and growt back soon

 

[Allmost]

okay maybe some pics could help, but I need some help from you guys giving me names for these guys :S

there are 7 pieces in this pic. anyone an name them ?

1. browner one on the left hand side, used to be tri color
2. the blue tall frag at the back.
3. the one in front of it, millie ?
4. the orange looking one after it, which used to be white with blue tips !
5. the little blue one, milie again ?
6. the bigger one at the back
7. the one in front right bottom corner.

here is another shot of full tank.

please tell me names for which ever ones you know, and please do not hesitate to tell me how to make the tank look better lol
I was thinking of maybe removing some rocks ? for more swimming space and more room for corals to grow an maybe I can get more corals ?
I hear oh nice from family and friends daily lol so please give me your honet opinion I want to be told off to make this look better as I'm really thinking of takin this tank apart and upgrading it to a much larger one :S just not enough room for the fishes I want and ...

thanks all.

 

[Allmost]

oh and the blue coral you see on the right hand side behind the green birdsnest ? there is a sponge growing at the bottom of it and its botom part is kinda dying off !.

sponge taking over ?

would adding a 6 line Wrasse to the set up help get rid of them ? I dont really like this fish but if it helps, I'll get one

 

[Allmost]

this is making me sad, does noone replying mean noone survived this
lol

 

[NeverlosT]

It is tough to tell from the pictures but your acroporas dont seem to be showing the tissue recession at the base that I would associate with AEFW. And Red Bugs are too small to pick up in pictures like these, so I am afraid it will be difficult to offer much info on pests.

In all honesty, I think your corals look great, they probably just need some time and stability to color back up! Good luck!

 

[trwells]

I read this post several times and am not exactly sure what you are asking. I agree with the above that based on your pictures there is nothing wrong with the tank. Before treating the tank you need to be sure that you have something that needs treatment. What you describe as flatworms sounds like red planaria not AEFW. These are not the same thing and present different problems that require different solutions. I do not see any red planaria in the pictures you posted.

Perhaps some images of the "red looking small things" in your sump and reactors would help.

There is a sticky at the top of the SPS forum called "SPS pests and treatment
options" that has excellent images of what you should be looking for.

 

[Allmost]

I read this post several times and am not exactly sure what you are asking. I agree with the above that based on your pictures there is nothing wrong with the tank. Before treating the tank you need to be sure that you have something that needs treatment. What you describe as flatworms sounds like red planaria not AEFW. These are not the same thing and present different problems that require different solutions. I do not see any red planaria in the pictures you posted.

Perhaps some images of the "red looking small things" in your sump and reactors would help.

There is a sticky at the top of the SPS forum called "SPS pests and treatment
options" that has excellent images of what you should be looking for.

lol okay you are right as I'm kind of confused.

so I checked the red bug pic. and that is exactly what I saw in my sump and carbon reactor !!! but none on my corals, or at least none that I can see or know of. but my corals do look a little pail , so basically want to prevent it from getting worse u know.

will the mandarin I have in the 65G be enough to be sure the flat worms or red bugs wont get to the acros ?

if they are not AEFWs, then nice and this tank has been only up for 6 months, so as NeverlosT said, it could just be that it needs time to breathe (I do notice I change alot, so stopped and will not change dosing methods adn regimes for a while )

thanks

 

[trwells]

I doubt red bugs would hang out in your sump. I have never heard of them colonizing anything but acropora. Keep in mind they are very very small. About the size of a pin head. They are yellow with a bright red dot on them.

If they are in the tank they are already on the acros. But I am still not convinced you have them. Take a close look at your smoother skinned acros to see if you can find any.

 

[iap]

Yea look at your acro and you will see if you have redbugs for sure. I just spotted some the other day and hopefully have killed them all off now.

 

[Allmost]

thanks guys, took a closer look at the acros, doesnt seem like anything on them ! lol thank god,

but still not sure what these guys are !! they are for sure bigger than a pin head, they are much bigger. maybe a grown red bug ? and the mandarin is not letting them colonize ?
my seahorse tank has some too, so I put another mandarin in there (two systems are connected. )

on a good note., I caught the fish/acro eating crab this morning :uzi::uzi::uzi:

it was the size of my palm !! so not sure if it should be food for my shark, or the mayor of my fuge lol or maybe a world cup snack lol

 

[saltygeek]

Just sounds like pods to me, dont worry about them.

 

[Allmost]

okay so I finally found out what they are, they are flat worms.

they are mostly seen in my seahorse tank (on glass) and some int eh sump (GAC reactor ! )

so I got another mandarin for the seahorse tank, and I already have a mandarin in my SPS reef tank.

what else should I do to prevent these guys taking over the tank ? as I hear they could harm corals and are toxic !

I dont know if treating the whole tank would be a good option, with flatworm exit maybe ?

the LFS advised me to add a wrasse to the tank as well, a six line or yellow wrasse ! but I held back till I get some of your experiences.

what do you think I should do ?

I know I sound a little paranoid, but I left a piece of dictyota algae in my tank thinking it looks good, and it took over the rocks in a week, and took me 3 months to remove them all lol so Im not takin chances with these guys

any advice is appreciated.

PS. what do flat worms eat ? I have stopped dosding sponge power (sponge food) from Zeo for a week now, and all my hydroids are disapearing. any relation ? could sponge power have let to these guys ?

 

[trwells]

First, you need to identify the flatworms. From everything you have said they are probably red planaria. These flatworms are technically harmless, however they are awful to look at and will reach plague proportions rapidly which can result in the death of corals. They release toxins when they are killed.

Flatworm exit will kill red planaria, however, if there are lots of them (which there likely are) then the toxins they release will kill other things in the tank.

The recommended treatment is to siphon out the flatworms over time until you don't see anymore, then treat with flatworms exit according to its instructions, and finally do large water changes and run GAC. Other options are to attempt to control the population with fish, but this effort will likely fail.

I am not sure what they eat but starving them is not a realistic option.

I also recommend starting a new thread in the reed discussion forum because red planaria are unrelated to SPS corals and you will likely get a better response from posters in that forum. Try to post some pictures of the flatworms in that forum so they can be positively identified.

Dictyota algae is awful. I fought it for over a year on my last tank. It is the only algae I know of that grows fastest in ideal water conditions.

Good luck.