New Fauna Marine AEFW X

Fathicham · Dec 27, 2020

i started using aefw x this week (5 day), i saw when the lights are off, to see aefw floats, and after some research, (and as others mentioned) it does not kill the flatworm but interrupts their life cycle (reproduction and transformation), d or my question: do we have to kill the existing larvae? because I imagine that they continue to eat the accropora even if they do not reproduce.

ScottB · Dec 27, 2020

Fathicham said:
i started using aefw x this week (5 day), i saw when the lights are off, to see aefw floats, and after some research, (and as others mentioned) it does not kill the flatworm but interrupts their life cycle (reproduction and transformation), d or my question: do we have to kill the existing larvae? because I imagine that they continue to eat the accropora even if they do not reproduce.

I have not read yet what the adult life span is, but given the rate at which they reproduce, it must be short. I would guess weeks to months -- not years.

jda · Dec 27, 2020

There is research by Kate Rawlinson, and others, about life cycle and all kinds of neat things with AEFW - you can google for them.

In general, think 3-6 months for a worm to live a good life with food, depending on food and stuff... with 1-2 months before a juvi is ready to lay new eggs. A worm will die in about a month without food. This fits with the 6+ month dosing cycle if the old ones have to die of old age childless.

carmodpg · Dec 28, 2020

Fathicham said:
i started using aefw x this week (5 day), i saw when the lights are off, to see aefw floats, and after some research, (and as others mentioned) it does not kill the flatworm but interrupts their life cycle (reproduction and transformation), d or my question: do we have to kill the existing larvae? because I imagine that they continue to eat the accropora even if they do not reproduce.

I believe the point of the treatment is to prevent larval development which in turn assures no new eggs are laid. The treatment also stops the adult flatworms growth and weakens them. With regards to your question, I guess the answer would be that it would still be wise to dip the infested coral around 2 weeks time from your previous dip to ensure that you remove the existing larvae that cannot reproduce (but as you mention, could still eat acros). Thus, if the AEFW-X is working as advertised, the dip will of the acro will kill the existing flatworms and the eggs that were previously laid will hopefully have a significant reduction in the larval development. So after 4-6 weeks, if all works according to the plan, the AEFW are eradicated.

But again, back to your question, I think it is always better to be safe by dipping around 13 days after your last dip at least one more time after you started the treatment.

Fathicham · Dec 29, 2020

I wonder if the aefw x of marine fauna affects the aquarium biofilter

ScottB · Dec 29, 2020

Fathicham said:
I wonder if the aefw x of marine fauna affects the aquarium biofilter

I believe they say the active ingredient is capsaicin. Some speculate it also contains wormwood. Neither should impact the biofilter.

Rando · Dec 29, 2020

you can pour liters of it into your tank without success. the same applies to your RTN / STN X. I used both and found it to be a pure waste of money!

ScottB · Dec 29, 2020

Rando said:
you can pour liters of it into your tank without success. the same applies to your RTN / STN X. I used both and found it to be a pure waste of money!

As a KZ user, did you try KZ Flatworm Stop? Did it help?

Rando · Dec 30, 2020

ScottB said:
As a KZ user, did you try KZ Flatworm Stop? Did it help?

Yes, I only use Flatwormstop in conjunction with Coral Booster. But the remedy does not help against Flattworms either. What is very positive is that injured SPS regenerate themselves very quickly and again form a basis very quickly. That's why I like to use it.

ScottB · Dec 30, 2020

Rando said:
Yes, I only use Flatwormstop in conjunction with Coral Booster. But the remedy does not help against Flattworms either. What is very positive is that injured SPS regenerate themselves very quickly and again form a basis very quickly. That's why I like to use it.

I threw the kitchen sink at my infestation and it seems to be holding.
KZ FW Stop
KX Coral Boost
6-line X 3
Springeri damsels X 6
KCl dipping weekly for three months

Have not seen aefw since August.

Fathicham · Dec 31, 2020

questions for those who dose the aefw x: since I dose this, my skimmer is half-filled every day (the collection cup), is this your case?

carmodpg · Dec 31, 2020

Fathicham said:
questions for those who dose the aefw x: since I dose this, my skimmer is half-filled every day (the collection cup), is this your case?

That has not been an issue for me. I have not seen the slightest change in any parameters or anything else along those lines. My only change has been a decrease in the number of AEFW and some of the corals that were effected showing signs of growing back...

Fathicham · Dec 31, 2020

carmodpg said:
That has not been an issue for me. I have not seen the slightest change in any parameters or anything else along those lines. My only change has been a decrease in the number of AEFW and some of the corals that were effected showing signs of growing back...

me too, no new grinds or eggs, except that the skimmer filled every day.

Fathicham · Dec 31, 2020

do you think that the fact :that my skimmer is filled every day, it neutralizes the product and therefore affects the results?

carmodpg · Jan 1, 2021

Fathicham said:
do you think that the fact :that my skimmer is filled every day, it neutralizes the product and therefore affects the results?

No. I think if that were the case (or if there was something as common as a over skimming) that had a significant negative impact on the treatment, there would be a warning or little blurb on the bottle or HTU stating that over skimming will decrease the effectiveness of the treatment. I believe some of their other products state that the skimmer should be turned off during dosing. Also, the instructions specifically say to turn of UV, but nothing else. That’s just my two cents...

If you do not see any improvement, I would message them on Facebook to inquire further. They have been pretty responsive to my questions.

scott711 · Jan 3, 2021

I started with AEFW-X a few weeks ago. Per the directions, I turned off my UV and kept my skimmer on. I also lowered the temp of the tank to 75 to slow the metabolism of the worms. Initially I was dipping some of my corals, but my tank is pretty well established and I have some big colonies that I can't pull of rocks.

The one thing I noticed off the bat were some corals were more sensitive to it than others. I lost my red dragon colony shortly after I started dosing and some of my corals have lightened up a lot. I think it has been around 3 weeks and I have been checking for eggs ~ twice a week and I haven't seen any in about a week.

ScottB · Jan 3, 2021

scott711 said:
I started with AEFW-X a few weeks ago. Per the directions, I turned off my UV and kept my skimmer on. I also lowered the temp of the tank to 75 to slow the metabolism of the worms. Initially I was dipping some of my corals, but my tank is pretty well established and I have some big colonies that I can't pull of rocks.

The one thing I noticed off the bat were some corals were more sensitive to it than others. I lost my red dragon colony shortly after I started dosing and some of my corals have lightened up a lot. I think it has been around 3 weeks and I have been checking for eggs ~ twice a week and I haven't seen any in about a week.

Eggs are so hard to spot. At least with my middle aged eyes. I have to pull the acros from the tank and inspect with a lit lens to find them.

carmodpg · Jan 3, 2021

Totally agree that eggs are borderline impossible to spot! Interesting regarding your loss of corals (and I am sorry to hear that). I wonder if it was the AEFW-X, or something else. I am not saying that it didn't cause you to lose your corals, but I have not seen any other reports regarding loss of corals due to the treatment. Then again, there are not a lot of people using it at this point since its so new. Keep us posted, I am interested to hear about your experiences. All tanks are different, but I have been dosing for one month today and I can honestly tell you that I haven't seen even the slightest sign of stress on any corals or any change in the overall parameters (as I said earlier). However, people said the same thing for Vibrant and I made the mistake of dosing it for a week until my corals started to die!

ScottB · Jan 3, 2021

scott711 said:
I started with AEFW-X a few weeks ago. Per the directions, I turned off my UV and kept my skimmer on. I also lowered the temp of the tank to 75 to slow the metabolism of the worms. Initially I was dipping some of my corals, but my tank is pretty well established and I have some big colonies that I can't pull of rocks.

The one thing I noticed off the bat were some corals were more sensitive to it than others. I lost my red dragon colony shortly after I started dosing and some of my corals have lightened up a lot. I think it has been around 3 weeks and I have been checking for eggs ~ twice a week and I haven't seen any in about a week.

Have you tried basting potentially afflicted colonies with RODI to see if any aefw come off? That became one part of my treatment method, just to get the wrasses and damsels to feed on them once they hit the water column.