Levamisole Hydrochloride
Levamisole Hydrochloride
Levamisole Hydrochloride comes as an organic salt, a white crystalline powder. Using it to dose the water to kill a particular invertebrate while leaving others alone requires a specific weight of the material to be dissolved in a given amount(weight) of water. Often one expresses the dosage in parts per million or PPM. 5 grams of a salt dissolved in 100 gallons (833 pounds of water) is roughly 13.3 PPM of that salt in that 100 gallons.
If one wants to dose a 50 gallon tank with 13.3 PPM and one only has a 5 gram package of the salt - either weigh out 2.500 grams(gram scale) of that solid OR Dissolve the 5 grams in a known amount of water. Say 10 spoons of water. Now that 10 spoons of solution treats 100 gallons. 5 of those spoons of solution will treat 50 gallons. One of those spoons of solution treats 10 gallons of water, etc. This way one doesn't have to use a gram scale, it's all done by volume measure.
To our Planarian problem: it seems that 5 grams of the solid is effective in 400 gallons of water.
That is 13.3/4= 3.325PPM but that's not really important -
What is really important is the dividing the 5 gram package into portions to treat quantities of tank water. If your sump plus tank, etc. is 400 gallons plus or minus about 50 gallons, then dissolve the 5 grams in some tank water and add it in slowly and watch the tank invertebrates. If there is a lot of stress - then change a lot of water and add charcoal to the filter. If it looks alright, then wait 4 to 8 hours. Syphon out the dead Planaria, then change the water.
If you only have 200 gallons to treat and don't have a gram scale, mix the 5 grams into 10 spoons of water, dissolve it and spoon out 5 spoons of the solution into your tank/system. The remaining 5 spoons of solution can be kept in the refrigerator for 6 to 8 weeks in a closed glass container. It will retain its properties as long as it doesn't evaporate. Vary the strength of the solution as you need for your system's volume of water. It is much easier to split the volume of solution than weigh out specific grams or fractions.
I have kept Levamisole for killing Nematodes in Fresh Water fishes. Now I have found it useful for eliminating Nematodes in Frogs and Toads. It is useful in the Marine systems to eliminate these Flat worms. There are some people raising birds who keep it on hand for Nematodes as well.
Levamisole has found its way into the pharmaceutical world and that has stopped it in the pet market. They would rather sell it for $1000/gram rather than a dollar. There are better dewormers for warm blooded live stock than Levamisole but most of them kill our fishy friends and we wouldn't want that.
