AEFW's Worst Nightmare - Purge V2

[GrouperBait]

I received a bottle today. I have had aefw since last fall, and I’ve used FWS with great success. Corals are growing but aefws remain. I’m not buying any more acros til they are all gone so I decided to give this a try. Today is day one. Wish me luck.

Also, does anyone know if you’re supposed to turn off UV? I haven’t seen anything about that anywhere. Thanks!

Geez, within 5 minutes, and I turned my skimmer alllll the down. This is normal, right?

 

[piranhaman00]

Its always wise to turn of UV during med treatments. UV degrades some chemicals.

 

[UWC]

I received a bottle today. I have had aefw since last fall, and I’ve used FWS with great success. Corals are growing but aefws remain. I’m not buying any more acros til they are all gone so I decided to give this a try. Today is day one. Wish me luck.

Also, does anyone know if you’re supposed to turn off UV? I haven’t seen anything about that anywhere. Thanks!

I would turn the UV off during treatment

Geez, within 5 minutes, and I turned my skimmer alllll the down. This is normal, right?

Yup, it will foam and bubble pretty good

 

[GrouperBait]

I would turn the UV off during treatment



Yup, it will foam and bubble pretty good

Thanks so much! It’s been like 15 minutes, and I can see them dying and floating around. This product is insane. Crossing my fingers!!

@UWC, Im not sure if I have a low or high infestation..is there any harm in doing a high dose just to be sure?

 

[UWC]

Thanks so much! It’s been like 15 minutes, and I can see them dying and floating around. This product is insane. Crossing my fingers!!

@UWC, Im not sure if I have a low or high infestation..is there any harm in doing a high dose just to be sure?

Great to hear!

Honestly, By the time people figure out that they have flatworms, it's usually enough to be considered a high infestation. So my recommendation is for everyone to follow the high infestation dosing instructions.

 

[BamaReefer123]

I received a bottle today. I have had aefw since last fall, and I’ve used FWS with great success. Corals are growing but aefws remain. I’m not buying any more acros til they are all gone so I decided to give this a try. Today is day one. Wish me luck.

Also, does anyone know if you’re supposed to turn off UV? I haven’t seen anything about that anywhere.
And I’m not sure if I have a low or high infestation....is there any harm in doing the high dose just in case?
Thanks!

I turned UV off just to be safe. Dose only what the recommended dose for your size tank. Dose religiously and you will see a difference in about a week or two.

BamaReefer

 

[BamaReefer123]

Thanks so much! It’s been like 15 minutes, and I can see them dying and floating around. This product is insane. Crossing my fingers!!

@UWC, Im not sure if I have a low or high infestation..is there any harm in doing a high dose just to be sure?

That was quick. Yeah this product is awesome and a game changer for the reefing community.

BamaReefer

 

[UWC]

I turned UV off just to be safe. Dose only what the recommended dose for your size tank. Dose religiously and you will see a difference in about a week or two.

BamaReefer

I have added the turn off your UV during the treatment to the original post, not sure how I missed that. I have also removed the two different treatment options and have changed them to what the bottle label instructions say. That is a sure fire treatment for anyone with AEFW's. With that there will be no confusion for people

 

[UWC]

That was quick. Yeah this product is awesome and a game changer for the reefing community.

BamaReefer

Thanks

 

[ScottB]

I discovered AEFW back in June in my 300G frag system. I threw the kitchen sink at them (predators, KCL dip weekly, KZ FWS at double dose) and thought I had them gone by mid August. But they mounted a comeback.

I dosed 150ml last night. It does drive the skimmer wild but no harm there with the cup off. Lights are just coming up and everything looks fine so far. There is a strong scent of tea tree oil (Melaleuca) similar to Melafix dip if you've ever used that.

When do you folks turn carbon back on? I normally only run it a couple hours per day.

 

[UWC]

You will want to leave the carbon off for the whole treatment

 

[Poochaku]

You will want to leave the carbon off for the whole treatment

Ooh i accidentally put carbon on 3 days into the first dose. Do you recommend redosing?

 

[UWC]

I would pull the carbon out and just dose again on your next scheduled dose

 

[delv2323]

What about running the skimmer? Should we aim for 5 or 6 weeks of no skimmate collection?

 

[UWC]

Yes, I would leave it running with the cup off the whole treatment

 

[GrouperBait]

What about running the skimmer? Should we aim for 5 or 6 weeks of no skimmate collection?

I just came back to the thread to ask the same question. I’m guessing I’ll need to do a massive water change after treatment is over. The skimmer is still unable to collect anything unless I put it on a stand and have the pump barely in the water. It’s been 4 days.

A few notes on my experience so far for anyone trying to decide on the product:
There has been a slight increase in alkalinity, and I have lowered my dose from 165 to 150mls (based off trident and manually adjusting the DOS). Alk has gone from 8.5 to 9 (whereas it is usually 8.4-8.7), but the calcium has been relatively the same. I know it’s not a huge difference, but it is definitely a change due to using the product...either directly or indirectly. I took the co2 scrubber offline because the mass skimmer overflow in combination with the scrubber puts me over 8.5ph around 7pm (it is usually between 8.2-8.4pH and it’s never hit 8.5) The rise in pH may be the culprit for the alk increase. (Yes I know the opposite should happen, and this change is very very minimal, but I’m just saying the pH increase is certainly a part of the differential diagnosis.)
As far as the corals are concerned, a few LPS have reacted negatively. A have a super sensitive little brat of a Duncan that closes at the slightest bit of change, and it has been closed up since 24 hours in to treatment. Also, my torch garden has acted a little bit negatively but nothing major. Again, these changes could also be due to micro bubbles and higher than normal pH. I changed the filter sock at about 48 hours into treatment, and it was slammed full of crap. I couldn’t tell if it was all dead flatworms or just gunk from the “unintentional mild bubble scrubbing”. Either way, it 100% was not a normal 2 day old filter sock. And most importantly, zero negative reactions to anything else. Fish are normal and all other corals are normal. The acros have PE but they also had PE before treatment, likely due to a consistent daily dose of FWS for about 6 months....but the aefws were still present. I saw this product and wanted to give it a chance! I’ll update if anything changes or I’ll update after treatment if all goes well until then.

 

[ScottB]

I just came back to the thread to ask the same question. I’m guessing I’ll need to do a massive water change after treatment is over. The skimmer is still unable to collect anything unless I put it on a stand and have the pump barely in the water. It’s been 4 days.

A few notes on my experience so far for anyone trying to decide on the product:
There has been a slight increase in alkalinity, and I have lowered my dose from 165 to 150mls (based off trident and manually adjusting the DOS). Alk has gone from 8.5 to 9 (whereas it is usually 8.4-8.7), but the calcium has been relatively the same. I know it’s not a huge difference, but it is definitely a change due to using the product...either directly or indirectly. I took the co2 scrubber offline because the mass skimmer overflow in combination with the scrubber puts me over 8.5ph around 7pm (it is usually between 8.2-8.4pH and it’s never hit 8.5) The rise in pH may be the culprit for the alk increase. (Yes I know the opposite should happen, and this change is very very minimal, but I’m just saying the pH increase is certainly a part of the differential diagnosis.)
As far as the corals are concerned, a few LPS have reacted negatively. A have a super sensitive little brat of a Duncan that closes at the slightest bit of change, and it has been closed up since 24 hours in to treatment. Also, my torch garden has acted a little bit negatively but nothing major. Again, these changes could also be due to micro bubbles and higher than normal pH. I changed the filter sock at about 48 hours into treatment, and it was slammed full of crap. I couldn’t tell if it was all dead flatworms or just gunk from the “unintentional mild bubble scrubbing”. Either way, it 100% was not a normal 2 day old filter sock. And most importantly, zero negative reactions to anything else. Fish are normal and all other corals are normal. The acros have PE but they also had PE before treatment, likely due to a consistent daily dose of FWS for about 6 months....but the aefws were still present. I saw this product and wanted to give it a chance! I’ll update if anything changes or I’ll update after treatment if all goes well until then.

Hey thanks for the update. Interesting that we have some different observations since dosing. Minor though.
a) My ALK is steady
b) My pH is down about .15 to .20 on average even with replaced scrubber media and cracked windows. Maybe my probe is messed up by the bubbles though. Just thought of that.
c) My temperamental duncan is unfazed and my torch is fine too.
d) Morning after dosed I had one small acro frag lose tissue at the base. I cut and remounted; recession has stopped so far. Could be unrelated; hard to say.
e) I dipped yesterday and had a handful of live aefw come off. Also had several live, tiny acoel that seem unaffected at this point.
f) My nutrients are slightly down.

So if I am thinking about this the right way... by the end of treatment -- and assuming no water changes -- I am going to have 750ml of Purge 2.0 in my system.

Are we supposed to do any water changes?

 

[UWC]

Hey thanks for the update. Interesting that we have some different observations since dosing. Minor though.
a) My ALK is steady
b) My pH is down about .15 to .20 on average even with replaced scrubber media and cracked windows. Maybe my probe is messed up by the bubbles though. Just thought of that.
c) My temperamental duncan is unfazed and my torch is fine too.
d) Morning after dosed I had one small acro frag lose tissue at the base. I cut and remounted; recession has stopped so far. Could be unrelated; hard to say.
e) I dipped yesterday and had a handful of live aefw come off. Also had several live, tiny acoel that seem unaffected at this point.
f) My nutrients are slightly down.

So if I am thinking about this the right way... by the end of treatment -- and assuming no water changes -- I am going to have 750ml of Purge 2.0 in my system.

Are we supposed to do any water changes?

Hey Scott, unless absolutely necessary for some reason, I would skip water changes completely

 

[GrouperBait]

Hey thanks for the update. Interesting that we have some different observations since dosing. Minor though.
a) My ALK is steady
b) My pH is down about .15 to .20 on average even with replaced scrubber media and cracked windows. Maybe my probe is messed up by the bubbles though. Just thought of that.
c) My temperamental duncan is unfazed and my torch is fine too.
d) Morning after dosed I had one small acro frag lose tissue at the base. I cut and remounted; recession has stopped so far. Could be unrelated; hard to say.
e) I dipped yesterday and had a handful of live aefw come off. Also had several live, tiny acoel that seem unaffected at this point.
f) My nutrients are slightly down.

So if I am thinking about this the right way... by the end of treatment -- and assuming no water changes -- I am going to have 750ml of Purge 2.0 in my system.

Are we supposed to do any water changes?

I’ve very interested to know how long you’ve had aefw. I think this may be our main difference as far as the acros go.

 

[ScottB]

I’ve very interested to know how long you’ve had aefw. I think this may be our main difference as far as the acros go.

My guess is I'd had them for a while before discovering them in June. I'd been keeping several good hunting wrasses in there but over time they were jumping out of the frag system and not being replaced. I think this allowed the worms to gear up.

Within a week of discovery, I had the full kitchen sink approach in place. I was "clear" by mid August. No more worms would come off in dips. No more bite marks, etc. Things were smooth until a couple weeks ago. I thought I had white bugs, and dipped a few colonies into Interceptor dip for 16 hours. And about 8-10 worms came off.

The frag that struggled was fairly new to the system. The older damaged colonies seem to be holding up OK so far.

One other observation: my basement smelled strongly of tea tree oil for a few days but seems to have dissipated over the last couple days. I guess the stuff kinda breaks down a bit over time and thus the need to keep dosing. Typically when dosing for pests, you dose, wait, remove, wait, repeat. Otherwise the concentrations get too high.