Flatworm Exit question

Say, I've let my reef tank go and have a flat worm problem, thousands of them. I vacuumed the tank and put new charcoal in the filtration and did a 25% water change. I must have killed too many and released a large amount of toxin because I lost my 4yo Yellow Tang and 8yo Maroon clown as well as a trumpet coral. The other corals took a beating but survived. Has anyone had any luck using Flatworm Exit. I know I'll have the same problem with toxin release. I was also thinking about getting a black velvet sea slug to thin out the population and then use the flatworm exit.

Any thoughts would be most appreciated. Thanks,
Larry

 

the flatworms can leave a toxin behind after they die.i take half the water out then treat with flatworm exit.then suck up as many as i can before filling the tank again.don't leave any more dead flatworms in the tank than you have to.flatworm exit has never killed anything in my tank but once i big time over dosed it and it paralized all the bristle worms and starfish till i did a water change.

 

Sorry for your loss....

 

post script

HI,
As we go thru this experience we call learning, I ve read somewhere the best treatment for flatworms is to slowly starve them out.
If they are exisiting in large number's someone is over feeding, the tank can only suport so much life reduce the feeding and the numbers will go down.
Doug
Be sure to skim alot your phos may be sky high too, all the trapped phos is being release from the DOA tissues of the worms.
Maybe a little of that phos remover liquid , just remove the pads and let the skimmer do its thing.
Doug

I hear it works well as along as you remove the filter pads that may bind it and let the skimmer remove the bound phos
the bad is if you don't skim it out it relases the phos back, some type of a chemical reaction.

 

I had 3 fish in tank and fed sparingly

 

I bought a 20 gallon long setup from someone on Craigslist and it came with a nasty bristle worm problem similar to yours. Over the weekend I pulled all the LR out of the tank and picked worms off.

Then I put it in a bucket and swirled the water (sw), which released a few more from the rock. Then if there were still a few more I did a fresh water dip on the rock.

I kept the LR in a covered bucket in water overnight.

In the meantime, I vacuumed the coral sand bed to break up the cavework the worms had dug. They had created a network under a few pieces of LR that was crazy gross when I picked it up. After ridding the tank of most of the worms I got up the next day to put the LR back in.

When I got up more bristle worms had left the rock so I picked it again before I put the LR back in the tank. There were still a few huge one left (6+ inches).

Unfortunately overnight might have been long enough for the toxins (from dying worms after the FW dip) to kill off some of the rock. We will see. I just put the LR back in two days ago so I may not know how much damage I did. It was a drastic and extreme move, but I had to get rid of them.

I also ordered some flatworm exit which I plan to use when it arrives from DFS. I i didn't want to use it with all of those worms in fear of the toxicity released when they all died.


Good Luck

 

OUCH!...so sorry about losses.

Never had a flat worm problem, but am paying close attention to this thread in event they ever show up. :-/

 

a black velvet slug will eat flatworms like candy and very fast. they are almost hard to keep alive since they feed on flatworms so much. flatworms come and go in waves.

 

I'm sorry for your loss . It sounds to me like you did almost everything right. I think the only mistake you made was waiting too long to treat for them. I have treated a few of my client's tanks who had bad outbreaks and always had good results. I would manually siphon as many as possible and then add a wrasse or two. A wrasse will cut the numbers down fairly quickly. I like to wait a week after adding the wrasses before using Flatworm Exit. If the flatworm numbers are definitely down I let the wrasses to their job and don't even bother with chemical treatments. If treatment is still required I wait one hour after treating and then perform a 25% water change and run carbon for at least 48 hours changing it out every 4-6 hours.

 

some wrasses are not guaranteed to eat flatworms, even the wrasses that are supposed to. unless you know a wrasse that i dont.