Red Flatworms

This process worked for me witrh flat worm exit:

Siphon all you can find before treatment.
Remove carbon if in use.
Place an hob filter over the side of our tank with pads but no carbon ;it will help siphon out the dying flatworms. Siphon manually as they die as well.
Add a power head or two to blow into /under the rocks.
Dose at 100%
After 40 minutes ,rinse off the filter pads and add carbon. Do a 20% water change and add the carbon .
Wait a day of two and repeat at 150% dose if there are survivors.
Take a good look at your overall nutrient management to limit future blooms .
Inspect new corals and rock and consider a a flat worm dipwith flat worm exi

Good Luck..
 
I pretty much did as instructed on melevsreef.com (see link below) I had them pretty bad as well, so I was patient and took about 2-3 weeks of sucking them out. No matter how many times you siphon the little guys, there are a always more hiding, always!!!! I treated a couple times.

I used flatworm exit and it seemed to me it just stunned them a little, so removing the flatworms upon treatment is a must. If you want to see the full effect of the toxin, rinse your filter bag in a small bucket. The water turns bright yellow and smells awfull!!

If you use flatworm exit and leave them in the tank, you are risking a big crash!!

http://www.melevsreef.com/flatworms.html
 
Do you guys talk to each other?
Over in "Total System Levasole Planaria Kill Recipe"
there are 11 pages of chat about this subject.

Just wondering how one section of this Forum works with another.

Charles H
 
well i just used 3/4 of the bottle on my 120 gl tank .............( i turned off my retur pump so my skimmer and 3 reactors loaded with fresh carbon are off line)
i think my flatworm problem was not extreme but im not sure how many there are in the system.........
its been bout 1 hr and i see some of the die and float abound not many most visible ones started to move around very fest not there is only few ones that i can see ..........there is only very few that are floting around so siphoning them out kinnda hard with hight water flow in the tank there are many of those small white star fish floting around so i think they are dieing........whats my next step? how long should i wait till i put the skimmer and reactors on? i have 40 gal of saltwater made up when should i do a water change?....................what will happen to all the dead worms that im unable to siphon out?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15259419#post15259419 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wschang812
salifert flatworm exit. works good
Click to expand...
Agree, this stuff works great. Turn off all your pumps and get a filter sock. Get a net ready and with in sec's of application, they will fill your tank every where. Watch your amonia levels and you may want to do a water change afterwords.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15381363#post15381363 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mario4254
well i just used 3/4 of the bottle on my 120 gl tank .............( i turned off my retur pump so my skimmer and 3 reactors loaded with fresh carbon are off line)
i think my flatworm problem was not extreme but im not sure how many there are in the system.........
its been bout 1 hr and i see some of the die and float abound not many most visible ones started to move around very fest not there is only few ones that i can see ..........there is only very few that are floting around so siphoning them out kinnda hard with hight water flow in the tank there are many of those small white star fish floting around so i think they are dieing........whats my next step? how long should i wait till i put the skimmer and reactors on? i have 40 gal of saltwater made up when should i do a water change?....................what will happen to all the dead worms that im unable to siphon out?
Click to expand...


how did it go?
 
I've dosed since my last time on this thread with BlueVet... flatworms were gone for a week or two and now they have returned in full form.

The damn things only dwell on the bottom third of my tank and the substrate right below the rock.

Bought a yellow coris... he hasn't done much. I heard these damn things go in cycles and they come and go. I can't stand them though.
 
I had them pretty bad also, and now I have no sign of them. You can get rid of them, but it may take a little work. I siphoned them out every couple of days for several weeks, to the point I could hardly find any more. Then I treated with flatworm exit and siphoned them out IMMEDIATELY. After 10-20 minutes I put a bag of carbon in the flow area of the sump and did a water change.

I used the siphon that melev talked about on his website. ( i posted the link in a previous post) I noticed that I would spend an hour or so siphoning them out, into a filter bag, in my sump, and the next day its like I never touched them, they came out of the "rock work" and were every where. Its like a little army ready for battle!!!!!

So I believe the key is siphoning them out every few days for a few weeks before treatment. I feel your pain!!! I got rid of these guys, but now I'm battling bubble algae...I think its even worse!!!!
 
siphon out as much as you can, then load up on the carbon and prepare at least for 20% water change. shut off your skimmer and carbon filter. dose FWE as instructed and let it run thru your system, you will results within minutes, after about 20 minutes begin your water change and turn on your skimmer and carbon. repeat process after 2 weeks and you should be clear of the buggers. do not under estimate these pests......i lost a lot of sps because i was not prepared for how many of these pests actually lived in my tank.
 
they are not hard to spot, they are usually red or i heard white but i had the red ones not the white.
flat, little antena's in front and about the size of a pencil eraser or smaller, sorry i dont have a good pic
 
Flatworms will become immune to Flatworm Exit

Flatworms will become immune to Flatworm Exit

I have battled Flat worms for over 3 years. Have used Flatworm exit many times and each time it was less and less effective. Have used Flatworm Exit at up to 2x recommended dose. It will kill 90% of the worms but some always remain. I eventually gave up on it because I had too many worms to risk a crash due to toxins if it did kill them. I have a six line wrass and a spotted Manderen neither of which I have ever saw eat a flatworm.

Now days (last year) I just live with the Flat Worms. They don't seem to do much harm. I haven't seen any corals that have been affected by then.
 
Question -

I would say 95% of the flatworms I have like resting on my ricordea and frilly mushrooms which, when I siphon them I've damaged some of the tissue. The tubing I use is 3/16"Ø. Should I be using something of a larger diameter, or maybe cut some slits at the tip - or holes?
 
on thing i learned when i used Exit on a tank is to take all socks, sponges ect out of your system. I was using a rather large canister filter to run carbon after the exit and i didnt think to remove the 2 sponges that were in the canister filter. In the end, they started as white new sponges and then turned orange from all the flatworm toxins.

I am sure that is what caused my treatment into a disaster, i was just cycling all those toxins back into the tank.
 
My 2 Cents:

Flatworms are a symptom and not an issue by themselves alone. No one is addressing the CAUSE of the flatworms. Flatworms like low flow, nutrient rich water. If you have tons all the time, and siphon them out and they keep coming back, there is an issue with your system, stocking and maintenance.

Flatworms are common in newly set-up systems, they usually go away in 4-6 months in a properly functioning system. I have systems that i can dump flatworms in all day and they will not maintain a sustainable population.

You will often notice they congregate where there is low flow. Increasing your flow in these areas will help. Also it is proven they prefer high nutrients, as they feed on these dissolved organic directly, as well as supplement their feeding through photosynthesis. Remove the nutrients, and the flatworms have a hard time surviving. Also it is believed that they require silicates, remove the silicates, no flatworms. The use of Ferrous Oxide phosphate removers will take out phosphates and silicates they need to survive.

Wrasses will help, as they eat straglers and make it hard for the flatworms to be out in the open. But all the suggestions on this thread have not made one mention of system design and maintanence. What is your nitrate, phosphate levels? What is your total tank flow? By addressing these issues you will take care of those suckers.

In short:

MORE FLOW

LESS NUTRIENTS and SILICATES

SYSTEM OVER 6 MONTHS OLD

EQUALS NO FLATWORMS
 
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