My AEFW treatment thread

[reefnjunkie]

Well I guess Ihave a little more time on my hands if I am starting a thread about treating AEFW-(scratch)

 

So about a month or so ago I noticed a couple acros in my dispaly not looking the best, I'll skip the long story and jump tot he part I where I dipped them in Coral RX Pro as directed on the label. After a few seconds I hit the one piece with the turkey baster and off flew the rotten SOB's. I proceeded to check the other colony and few came off it it also.

I then took about 5 other acros out that just looked "different" and dipped them....no flatwormsDOH!

 

I decided to take the baster and start basting every acro in the display, out of all my acros, I found 4 pieces that had at least one flatworm come off, of those 4 nothing more than 5-10 FW's at the most came off those remaining 3. It was at this point I decided to do it right and plan on treatment. My plan consists of me taking out every single acro in my tank and do the treatment as I had read about online and then to scrape every single spec of encrusted acro from my rock.

 

The part that makes this not so bad is since I just set this tank up this year most of my acros have yet to encrust. I have always attached my acros to rubble or the Ocean Wonders frag rocks so it is going to be easy popping them off the Live Rock.

 

I have spent the last 2 weeks planning and building a Q/T system to house all the acros for the next 6 to 8 weeks-I guess there is someting to be said for being being lazy and not posting old equipment for sale that I've had laying around- The only thing I did not have was a frag tank which I found Grassi had for sale/trade-(clap) and we did a deal for it (with a stand(rock2)). I plan to keep the frag tank once I am done and plumb that into my main display so I can have even more frags (insert evil laugh-(naughty))

 

So here is what I have come up with, hopefully I will get the first dipping started Sunday-once I get the doser (For KH stability) online. I tee'd off of the RO/DI auto top off and used a float I had and mounted that to the trough to handle any water evap so the salinity will be stable.

 

More to come later with the actual process(es)

 

 

 

[kriz2fer]

Looks nice man. Sucks you have to go through this. How long do you plan to dip for?

[reefnjunkie]

Looks nice man. Sucks you have to go through this. How long do you plan to dip for?

 

 

I know its not a "must do" situation especially since the greater majority are not showing signs of pests but I think I'm a bit of a perfectionist (nutty) and realize its really the best thing to do for the long haul.

 

I plan to set up dipping tubs and dip each acro for 10 minutes once a week for a minimum of 6 weeks weeks. Everything I have read says the incubation period or gestation( if I'm using the right term or whatever its called ) for the eggs is 1 week. I've read so many threads I could be wrong but thats what I think I recall. So over that period any new hatchings will be killed off with the upcoming dips.

 

I bought a 6 foot section of 3/8" acrylic rod that I plan to cut a ~1" "post" that I'll attach to the bottom each piece so it can stay on a section of egg crate. I'll take each section as a tray (which will hold as many corals I can fit on a 12 by 16 inch section) and dip that tray for 10 mins then move that to a rinse tub before I place it back into the Q/T tank.

 

I have a doser for KH, auto top off for SG, and temp probe to the APEX for stable temp. The only dosing would be Ca if needed but I'll be changing out roughly 50 gallons each week so it should not be much of a depletion-

 

If any of that make sense(scratch)

 

In my mind it seems to sound ok(laugh)

[CuttleFishandCoral]

Sorry to hear about the AEFW. On the bright side you now have a reason to get a dragon pipefish.

[kriz2fer]

6 weeks sounds good me and Once the eggs hatch they start layinh eggs in 7 days. It's a good idea that you taking action now before all your acro start showing signs. You could also put a couple wrasse in the quarantine tank to help.

 

 

Have you heard of the camel shrimp method for treating Aefw? People are using camel shrimp to eat the Aefw, you just through in in the tank and he Will eat all the flatworms and he eats eggs. You have to watch home though cause he will go after you corals.

[reefnjunkie]

Never heard of the camel shrimp-Its to late anyway.

 

I started today about 9:30 and wrapped up about 45 mins ago, there more flat worms that I thought, some corals did not look bad at all and had a worm or two. My Red planet which was the one I really hated to break off the rock did not have a single one, but it had to come out to do it right.

 

I was able to redo my rock work and am very happy with how it came out, the fish can swim all the way around the live rock, before I had a large piece against the back wall. Iam going to fine tune it a bit over the next 6+ weeks and I am alos going to tajke advantage of no acros and rehang my LEDs-

 

Last night I was thinking I will need to watch my Ca Rx since I have no stoneys in there and had I not thought of it my KH would be through the roof in a day or two-Cant believe I did not think of that before

 

All in all, I am not bummed at all-its a good thing

 

 

 

 

Some nice looking pieces if I dont say so myself-(whistle)

 

 

 

 

Oh and the fish are not happy, everyones home was "displaced" --DOH!

[mattv]

Way to get after it!

[Gill]

LOL, I took all my coral out and they fit in a 29 gallon with plenty of room.

 

I pity the bug that thinks it can free load off you brad.

[frankb]

I really admire your dedications. You are truly a die hard reefer.(icon)(icon)(icon)

[wanareef]

I really admire your dedications. You are truly a die hard reefer.(icon)(icon)(icon)

 

that's why his "handle" reefnjunkie (laugh) (laugh)

[Mandinga]

Brads thoughts: CAMEL SHRIMP! CAMEL SHRImP!!!! NOW YoU TELL ME ABOUT these so called AEFW eaters! Curse you!

 

Truly dedicated brad. Are you at all concerned with the possibility that they can incubate on other corals?

 

I have read that even the slightest encrusted growth can hold eggs, u are lucky to catch this before your corals started to crust over.

[Nate213]

Crap. I just was looking very closely at one of my Acro colonies that was receding and the [language filter] little buggers are on it! The only new corals I have bought in the last year for my display were from madmike a few weeks ago. Im sure they didnt come from his tank. I did buy a bunch of new cleanup crew about 2 months ago. They must have come from there. I would have never thought I would get these in my display. Im pretty careful about dips and quarantine for new additions.

[reefnjunkie]

Brads thoughts: CAMEL SHRIMP! CAMEL SHRImP!!!! NOW YoU TELL ME ABOUT these so called AEFW eaters! Curse you!

 

Truly dedicated brad. Are you at all concerned with the possibility that they can incubate on other corals?

 

I have read that even the slightest encrusted growth can hold eggs, u are lucky to catch this before your corals started to crust over.

 

As of last night there is not a spec of encrupusted acro left in the tank and everything I have read is there are specific to ONLY acropora, not montis, not setosa but only acropora. Also the eggs are like acid, there will be no living tissue where the eggs are-regardless I scraped what little encrusted life that was left off.

 

I mentioned or thought I did, I did not have many acros encrusted since I have always mounted all my acros of rubble or the ocean wonder frag rocks or whatever they are called and since I just got this tank up and running this year it was perfect timing.

 

As far as the camel shrimp, from what I have read I would not have tried that, it is not a proven method and sounds like those things could have been little bastages to some of my LPS.

 

Crap. I just was looking very closely at one of my Acro colonies that was receding and the [language filter] little buggers are on it! The only new corals I have bought in the last year for my display were from madmike a few weeks ago. Im sure they didnt come from his tank. I did buy a bunch of new cleanup crew about 2 months ago. They must have come from there. I would have never thought I would get these in my display. Im pretty careful about dips and quarantine for new additions.

 

Hopefully you dont have many acros, I'll say where there is one there are more. Good luck Nate!

 

 

I was in denile thinking it was limited to just a few. The day that I actually did it I told the wife "i'll dip a few to see how things go, if I dont see any then I may just treat the few I took out"

I'm glad the first colony I pulled out had about 70-80 then the next 5 I took out had zero-WTH

 

I've read many threads where the posts have spanned over a year where people have used this stuff;

 

http://www.bayeradvanced.com/insects-pests/products/home-pest-plus-germ-killer-indoor-outdoor-insect-killer

 

I picked up a quart of the concentrate and will experiment on two colonies that I was planning on getting rid of, that way if they die I am not out anything prize worthy. Everything I have read says this stuff works great and some have even posted that it killed their red bugs and if done according to the directions all is good.

[mattv]

Bayer is suppose to work very well and its cheap!

[reefnjunkie]

Bayer is suppose to work very well and its cheap!

 

13.00 makes 80 gallons and at 10 ml per 500 ml of tank water ( for 10 mins) its one heck of a deal, and with whats left I'll kill all the spiders and bugs around the exterior of he house that drive the wife crazy (clap)

[kriz2fer]

yeah works great

http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/showthread.php?31868-Bayer-insect-killer-dip-for-sps

[reefnjunkie]

yeah works great

http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/showthread.php?31868-Bayer-insect-killer-dip-for-sps

 

Never saw that thread thanks. Did you use it at full strength, I too got the same bottle which is the concentrate, I had planned on mixing it per the directions then usinfg the mixed or "made up" solution. Granted I have not even read the bottle, I just have read quite a few threads were people had been using it successfully and grabbed a bottle yesterday.

 

Thanks again

[Nate213]

I'm very interested in how that works. I read nearly the entire reefcentral thread last night. I do have a number of acro colonies so it will suck dipping them all. Fortunately most of them are small. It does give me some relief to finally figure out why a couple of my colonies weren't doing as well as they did in my 75. I've been driving myself insane checking water parameters, flow, lighting, ect. I wish I would have found them sooner.

[kriz2fer]

Never saw that thread thanks. Did you use it at full strength, I too got the same bottle which is the concentrate, I had planned on mixing it per the directions then usinfg the mixed or "made up" solution. Granted I have not even read the bottle, I just have read quite a few threads were people had been using it successfully and grabbed a bottle yesterday.

 

Thanks again

 

I was using 1ml per cup of tank water at first. Then I started increasing the doses and saw no ill affects from the coral. Now I pretty much just dump a bunch in and start dipping, with this stuff you really can't over dose unless you really go crazy with it. Trust me you have nothing to worry about this stuff is way softer on sps and anything I have ever use.

[reefnjunkie]

Well today was the 2nd dipping session out what will be 6 total and I only saw 2 FW out all the corals I dipped. None of the corals are recedding or showing any negative or adverse affects from the dipping.

 

I used the CoralRx on all acros and did a test on one colony using the bayer advanced. The test colony looks good and next week I may decided to do all of them using the bayer-time will tell

 

33% done(clap)

[Toby Flenderson]

Nice, it will feel good to be done im sure. I've always used coral Rx and just this week i was given a bottle of Revive (thanks rich). Have you used this before?

[reefnjunkie]

Nice' date=' it will feel good to be done im sure. I've always used coral Rx and just this week i was given a bottle of Revive (thanks rich). Have you used this before?[/quote']

 

I have not but have read its good stuff. The Bayer is just something that I have read and so far shown to be as effective for a fraction of the cost and is safe on all corals. I have yet to run across a single thread that someone has posted ill effects from using it.

 

I have read the the Rx is harsh on thin acros such as echinatas, (sp?).

 

I ended up wirh a few more frags yesterday DOH! One millii, one tort, added to the 8 or red planets I am building quite the little frag farm for my new tank(whistle)

[reefnjunkie]

Well 1 final update and a conclusion. I did my final dip yesterday and did not find any flatworms, and last week I did not see any eggs and still no eggs this week. I was going to try the advantage this week depending on how the one colony that I dipped in advantage last week looked. I chose that colony since I was going to be getting rid of it any way.

When I inspected it Friday night I noticed the whole back side had melted away and all that was left was white skeleton, it looked like it was still melting so I just took it out and threw the whole piece away-it was only 2 years of growth so [language filter] right.

 

That had me wondering what was up, the bayer or something else. To be safe I figured Saturday I would continue using CoralRx. I did everything the same this time around and when I was done I noticed some colonies not looking the best, well after about an hour **** started to go down hill.

 

I dont know WTH went wrong, maybe the Q/T system was done in the wrong manner, I assumed swapping out the water (80% each week) with water from the tank everything would have been fine. I dosed soda ash so the KH was stable, the temp and salinity was stable. Its all torn down now and I guess (in thinking back now) I should have tested for ammonia, etc. maybe the QT started to cycle, i was seeing the brown film like James is/was on his new frag tank-I will never know but that make the most sense, since there were frags I have been dipping over the last 3 weeks in my frag tank that never had a single issue but once the dipping started and they all were housed in the QT **** blew the **** upDOH!

 

After it is all done and said I have lost a few colonies, some more precious than others. The Pink Lemonade colony melted in about 45 mins, ( I should have called Guiness, that has to be a record) I woke to see one of the purple monster colonies toast, thanks fully it was the smaller one, but the larger one is still looking like **** and has a good amount of skeleton showing. I did cut a 1" frag from the only clean area I could find. One of my shortcake colonies is looking toast to, gladly I got 2.

 

There is more laying in the pile of death and perhaps more to be added- my red planet looks loke its going to make it, basiclly any thin skinned acro is a fresh water ornament, or a fish only tank that uses copper.(laugh)

 

For the most part I got back-ups to all my stuff, its the purple monster that really has me throwing a 'pity party' but it'll grow back and **** happens when you plan poorly.

 

If I could make a suggestion for anybody stubbling across this thread while searching the internet for treatments for acro eating flatworms is when you set up a QT do it as you would be setting up an entire new system, let it cycle etc then go for it.

 

The other option I was going to do was plumb it into my existing setup but have the drain go into its own filter sock and as long as the filter sock never overflowed into my sump any flat worms or eggs would have stayed within the sock. I think next time I'll try that method(laugh)

 

Well that's what happens when you dont do it right(agree)

[SteveHash-fish20]

[language filter].... That's painful to read.. I thought I was having a bad day noticing the ****ing **** stain damsel o have "cycling" my new tank has ich... Or a fluke.. So I'm hoping it's not ich, caught it now it's out. But nothing's worse than loosing amazing coral frags, gl rnj and I'm sorry bout the purple monster I'd probably throw a pity party as well lol(sad)

[CuttleFishandCoral]

Ouch! That sucks dude.