My Battle Against Acropora-Eating Flatworms

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The way I would do this is have both 10 gallons running and cycled so that you can do a two stage QT.
1) remove the bases of all these corals
2) dip in Bayer as it is more gentle on the coral
3) mount corals on new bases
4) Repeat dips at least once a week for a month(rebase at each dip making sure to cover any sections that are not live flesh with glue). Inspect corals closely looking for fresh bites, eggs etc(there should be none by week 4)
5) Dip, rebase and transfer to tank 2
6) Inspect the corals, let them sit for about two weeks and continue to look for eggs, bites(there should be none at this point)
7) dip, rebase, put into a clean tank

Making sure that nothing from the infected tanks touches your QT. In our facility we have "clean" tools that are only to be used in the QT tanks and we have the ones that are to be used in the conditioning systems. At home it might just be easier to rinse them in freshwater then let them dry completely before using them.


Edit: For dipping we have dedicated bins(1 for dipping, 2 for rinsing), power heads and heaters. You do not want Bayer to make itself into your display.

The majority of the corals we have available online are farmed frags so we have to be pretty strict about coral consuming pests.

 

[nickkohrn]

The way I would do this is have both 10 gallons running and cycled so that you can do a two stage QT.
1) remove the bases of all these corals
2) dip in Bayer as it is more gentle on the coral
3) mount corals on new bases
4) Repeat dips at least once a week for a month(rebase at each dip making sure to cover any sections that are not live flesh with glue). Inspect corals closely looking for fresh bites, eggs etc(there should be none by week 4)
5) Dip, rebase and transfer to tank 2
6) Inspect the corals, let them sit for about two weeks and continue to look for eggs, bites(there should be none at this point)
7) dip, rebase, put into a clean tank

Making sure that nothing from the infected tanks touches your QT. In our facility we have "clean" tools that are only to be used in the QT tanks and we have the ones that are to be used in the conditioning systems. At home it might just be easier to rinse them in freshwater then let them dry completely before using them.

The main challenge that I am facing is I live in an apartment where space is quite limited; I’m not able to have my main system and two 10g tanks running simultaneously. I’d love to have a dedicated quarantine system for corals because not having one is what got me into this position.

 

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The main challenge that I am facing is I live in an apartment where space is quite limited; I’m not able to have my main system and two 10g tanks running simultaneously. I’d love to have a dedicated quarantine system for corals because not having one is what got me into this position.

How much SPS do you have in the tank? Assume all SPS that were in the same tank are also infected.

You can modify that QT process to a certain extent. You could add springerii and yellow coris to your grow out and leave it free of acropora for at least a month. Remove all acropora and put in a cycled QT tank and do the above(sans tank transfer) in that QT tank.

You have to be mindful of certain things though:
You will likely have to dose the little tank and keep on top of the parameters
Always make sure to rebase
Always cover anything that is not live flesh with glue
2 Month acro fallow period is preferred but 1 month may work depending on the level of infestation
Flatworm stop doesnt kill flatworms, if you ever stop dosing FWS theres about a 80% chance you'll have a crash of varying severity. It also gets expensive overtime. You will get some really nice color though but its a bandaid not a solution


When you receive new corals in the future try to make calculated orders so that you can send them through QT in the 10 gallon and not risk this happening again. Remember, you want to get rid of this forever not just for now.

 

[nickkohrn]

How much SPS do you have in the tank? Assume all SPS that were near these are also infected.

I have 52 mounted frags in my 75g tank.

 

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I have 52 mounted frags in my 75g tank.

If they're not super large I would do a 30 gallon QT tank if you're willing to do a semi permanent thing. If not then stick with the ten gallon tank. The problem is that if you go through the effort of eradicating FW on acros and then throw them back in that tank by the time you're done with a second batch the first will have flatworms again.
Its not as bad as it seems I can promise you that. You just have to make some changes to what your initial plan was.


That being said if you just want to sustain the corals while you're figuring out the space issue, I would go the yellow coris, springerii route with a rotation of dips for the corals, and dosing FWS. It wont solve your issue but it'll hold you over until you figure something else out. As much as everyone strives to follow best practices, in a home tank its hard to have the protocols and systems in place to fight and kill FW.

Best of luck with these guys! If you have any questions please feel free to reach out. This is pretty much what we do twice a year when we introduce new corals into our QT just on a larger scale

 

[nickkohrn]

Flatworm stop doesnt kill flatworms, if you ever stop dosing FWS theres about a 80% chance you'll have a crash of varying severity.

What would cause a crash after discontinuing the usage of Flatworm Stop?

 

[TopShelfAquatics Verified Sponsor]

What would cause a crash after discontinuing the usage of Flatworm Stop?

Perhaps crash was not the correct word here. Quite a few ex users of FWS experienced an extreme loss of color in the acros, some losses, and an overwhelming amount of FW resurgence if the issue was not fully taken care of before stopping. Off the top of my head I know of at least two companies and 3 individual users who played around with it and had problems discontinuing use. Maybe if you very slowly ween the tank off of it it'll be less risky.

EDIT: KZ Doesn't disclose ingredients last I checked, otherwise I would give you a bit more scientific response vs. suggestions

 

[nickkohrn]

Perhaps crash was not the correct word here. Quite a few ex users of FWS experienced an extreme loss of color in the acros, some losses, and an overwhelming amount of FW resurgence if the issue was not fully taken care of before stopping. Off the top of my head I know of at least two companies and 3 individual users who played around with it and had problems discontinuing use. Maybe if you very slowly ween the tank off of it it'll be less risky.

EDIT: KZ Doesn't disclose ingredients last I checked, otherwise I would give you a bit more scientific response vs. suggestions

I appreciate you sharing your experiences, information, recommendations, and suggestions! This is an incredibly frustrating pest. I'd like to order a couple more magnetic frag racks that makes it easier to dips many corals at once. I think that would make it much easier for me to maintain a consistent schedule of dips.

 

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I appreciate you sharing your experiences, information, recommendations, and suggestions! This is an incredibly frustrating pest. I'd like to order a couple more magnetic frag racks that makes it easier to dips many corals at once. I think that would make it much easier for me to maintain a consistent schedule of dips.

Set reminders on your calendar as well. Life gets busy but if you have your phone keeping you on track it'll be a lot harder to forget

 

[nickkohrn]

Always make sure to rebase

Have you noticed any adverse effects during the process of frequent rebasing?

 

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Have you noticed any adverse effects during the process of frequent rebasing?

During QT in general most things brown out and stop growing then take roughly a month before they start flourishing again. It is a lot of stress on the coral after all. That being said, theres no worse adverse effect than the coral dying from AEFW.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Top shelf, I quit my double dose of fws with not a single issue with color or anything of the sort you mentioned. First I have heard of anyone having issues with it. Of course if you stop dosing while works are still in the tank the worms will affect the corals once the rebound though. I wonder how much that has to do with it. I have never seen color changes good or bad from using flatworm stop. Have you been following the threads about treating in the tank with fws or wormwood?
As to using a quickly set up qt to treat for aefw I always suggest to not do that because a quickly setup tank can kill corals quicker than aefw. If a tank is stable and setup for a while then that’s a great method but most reefers with aefw don’t have an extra tank or they would have at the coral in it from the start.

 

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Top shelf, I quit my double dose of fws with not a single issue with color or anything of the sort you mentioned. First I have heard of anyone having issues with it. Of course if you stop dosing while works are still in the tank the worms will affect the corals once the rebound though. I wonder how much that has to do with it. I have never seen color changes good or bad from using flatworm stop. Have you been following the threads about treating in the tank with fws or wormwood?
As to using a quickly set up qt to treat for aefw I always suggest to not do that because a quickly setup tank can kill corals quicker than aefw. If a tank is stable and setup for a while then that’s a great method but most reefers with aefw don’t have an extra tank or they would have at the coral in it from the start.

We never went the FWS route at the store but a couple of the staff did and had said issues coming off and a couple industry buddies as well. There are always differences in tanks but the ones we've received feedback from were fairly good SPS keepers that just happened to like bringing Indo SPS into their systems without true QT. I'm curious to see if there was a difference in additives as far as amino acids of choice and trace elements that might have made things go one way or another in conjunction with FWS. No one I spoke with submitted tests to Triton and this was roughly two years ago if I recall correctly.

We always keep cycled media on hand and as for a QT setup, as long as its micromanaged a bit we've had good experiences. Setting one up IMO is imperative to long term success so it's something we always like to encourage. While it can be challenging and take some time it is the best practice.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Yea people who have media like sporax and whatnot have a huge advantage for setting up coral at tanks successfully. People without that option Normally struggle keeping a coral qt without a long period between setup and coral additions. I like your method of rebasing corals on each dip.

 

[jda]

I have probably helped four to six dozen people use FWS to treat in-tank and none of them had any ill effects. One of two of them have reported seeing a worm or two after 4-6 months, but they still saw positive results. Most saw complete eradication. None had any losses or any kind of crashes... just positive results.

Most people just have a few questions on PM and then thank me down the road. This is a frustrating pest where people are scared to post about it and "branded" even though I do not think that is a thing.

These people did complete the whole 6+ month regiment.

FWS can raise some kinds of iodine. Not usually a problem for most, but it is a known thing.

 

[bckey]

I dose this daily in my tank. I use it as a preventative but others have dosed it to fight against flatworm outbreaks.

Flatworm Stop

Korallen-Zucht Flatworm Stop will help reduce parasitic flatworms on Acropora and SPS corals while strengthening all other types of corals. Works by making Acropora tissue unpalatable to acro-eating flatworms Reef-safe and will not harm any other vertebrate or invertebrate Rapid regeneration of...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

 

[troublemaker]

That is the FWS they are referencing above. So if nothing else, it’s another peer check along they way.

 

[nickkohrn]

So far, I have not seen additional bite marks. I assume that I killed most of, if not all of, the adults in the harsh dip that I performed. As stated, I did lose six frags, including the Strawberry Shortcake that is pictured in my initial post; they began to STN shortly after the dip, and I did not frag them because they were already small frags. I have continued to double-dose FlatwormStop daily, and I have not noticed negative or positive effects.

I am in the process of breaking down the current system and moving everything into a smaller system with better dimensions, so the amount of FlatwormStop dosed will be reduced by ~25%. I will be moving over all media and equipment, so I do not foresee many issues since all that will be changing is the total water volume, and the glass aquarium, sump, and plumbing. Unfortunately, this transfer has been planned for a while, and I do not want to postpone it any longer. The current system has been set up for one year, as of next month, so I don't anticipate many losses, but I am prepared for them.

My intentions are to continue dosing FlatwormStop daily and regularly inspect the corals with the help of a magnifying glass and Orphek Azurelight to help shine light on areas of missing tissue.

 

[LARedstickreefer]

What’s everyone’s thoughts on using Flatworm Stop BEFORE getting any flatworms? I know a lot are now using it because it may help growth for healthy corals, but what about as a pretreatment?

If you are flatworm free, and been dosing for a few months, might it have preconditioned your corals to be resistant to flatworms?

 

[BeelzebubsThrillStick]

Flatworms are so evil that even I don't like them!