New Fauna Marine AEFW X

[The Opinionated Reefer]

I was adding this to a dosing pump and forgot to remove about 100ml of alkalinity solution from the bottom of the dosing container.

Will the AEFW-X be ok?

 

[jd-woodlands]

Just saw this post, on my second bottle of AEFW-X, and so far I will cautiously report “all clear” of AEFW. Haven’t seen any adults, juvies, or eggs in 3 weeks.

First bottle i followed recommended dosing and used in conjunction with KZ FWS and did not see great results. I contacted fauna Marin and they advised to up the dosage, so I went to about 2.5ml per 10gal and ended up dosing 25ML at night for my tank.

I also decided to follow the instructions to the letter and stopped H202 dosing and KZ FWS while doing the treatment.

the increased dosage and stringent following of the directions seems to have done it!

I have tried other methods without success - KZ FWS, Purge, freshwater basting, etc, this could be the real deal.

will update in another month or two once I’m certain. I Will be resuming dosing KZ FWS once it’s done, mainly because I have it, it’s expensive, and the corals sure do like it.

Update.... worms still around... on a small 500ml bottle now (making 2.5L of I will have tried). Things look better and populations seem to be down, but they are still there. This is after 12 weeks or so of treatment at 25ML in 100gallons.

Not sure what to do at this point... its crazy every vendor out there can make these unsubstantiated claims and sell product that does NOT work.

 

[carmodpg]

I was adding this to a dosing pump and forgot to remove about 100ml of alkalinity solution from the bottom of the dosing container.

Will the AEFW-X be ok?

That is a tricky question, I am not sure about the effects of mixing it, but one would think that it may be a little less potent. I would think that it still would have some effect. I would reach out to Fauna Marine on Facebook and ask. They are very responsive.

 

[carmodpg]

Update.... worms still around... on a small 500ml bottle now (making 2.5L of I will have tried). Things look better and populations seem to be down, but they are still there. This is after 12 weeks or so of treatment at 25ML in 100gallons.

Not sure what to do at this point... its crazy every vendor out there can make these unsubstantiated claims and sell product that does NOT work.

I would also suggest that you dose a very small amount of lanthanum as well. I have found that when dosing around 4 ML (125 gallon DT, 164 gallons total volume) every other day for a couple weeks works wonders for clearing out every type of flatworm (especially the Red Planaria which were harassing my leather and torches). When I was on this regiment, in addition to the AEFW-X, I put 4 ml of lanthanum on top of a filter pad which sits on top of my filter socks so that it slowly enters into the system. Obviously, if you have a large population you should be running carbon and do a water change because of the die off. However, once the population as dwindled, you just need to really focus on your phosphate levels. I like to keep my phosphate between .08-.1 (mixed reef). I can tell you that while dosing, I never had a big flux in phosphate levels. To be honest, I think that the lowest it ever went down was to .06.

This may not be the approach that everyone wants to take. However, I will say I have not lost any frags to AEFW and definitely haven't seen any Red Planaria since I went through the regiment.

Just a thought.

 

[The Opinionated Reefer]

Update.... worms still around... on a small 500ml bottle now (making 2.5L of I will have tried). Things look better and populations seem to be down, but they are still there. This is after 12 weeks or so of treatment at 25ML in 100gallons.

Not sure what to do at this point... its crazy every vendor out there can make these unsubstantiated claims and sell product that does NOT work.

Agreed Lowering populations and having some effect is not the same as your tank will be flat worm free in 4 to 6 weeks!

 

[jd-woodlands]

I would also suggest that you dose a very small amount of lanthanum as well. I have found that when dosing around 4 ML (125 gallon DT, 164 gallons total volume) every other day for a couple weeks works wonders for clearing out every type of flatworm (especially the Red Planaria which were harassing my leather and torches). When I was on this regiment, in addition to the AEFW-X, I put 4 ml of lanthanum on top of a filter pad which sits on top of my filter socks so that it slowly enters into the system. Obviously, if you have a large population you should be running carbon and do a water change because of the die off. However, once the population as dwindled, you just need to really focus on your phosphate levels. I like to keep my phosphate between .08-.1 (mixed reef). I can tell you that while dosing, I never had a big flux in phosphate levels. To be honest, I think that the lowest it ever went down was to .06.

This may not be the approach that everyone wants to take. However, I will say I have not lost any frags to AEFW and definitely haven't seen any Red Planaria since I went through the regiment.

Just a thought.

I’ve tried everything else, might as well give the lanthium chloride a go.

 

[ScottB]

I’ve tried everything else, might as well give the lanthium chloride a go.

Sadly, I feel your pain.

 

[jd-woodlands]

Can someone save me tens of threads of looking and just let me know which product (Lanthanum) to get and how much to dose for flatworms?

 

[The Opinionated Reefer]

Can someone save me tens of threads of looking and just let me know which product (Lanthanum) to get and how much to dose for flatworms?

Tropic Marin 1ml per 100 litres.

 

[jd-woodlands]

Tropic Marin 1ml per 100 litres.

Perfect! Elimi-phos from what i read...?

 

[carmodpg]

Perfect! Elimi-phos from what i read...?

I use Elmi-Phos.

 

[ScottB]

Perfect! Elimi-phos from what i read...?

Correct. Just make sure you have phosphates to spare -- always.

 

[gallego2503]

I will tell my experience

I started with the AEFW problem about 1 year ago .. I saw in several colonies lose tissue, color and bites.

The first thing I did was start to cut the colonies that were affected from the rock.

set up a rack in the upper part of the aquarium and started placing the acros there to wash and keep them away from the rock (potential aefw).

I've been around for 1 year, I removed all the acros from the rock, I lost about 30 colonies and species and I think I'm finally ending the aefw

I have done coral baths every 15 days this year and 6 weeks ago I started with the aefw x to finally conclude the flatworms.

I have 2 baths since I started with the product, not a single aefw, 0 eggs apparently and the aefw have little chance of surviving on the rock as they have no food.

This weekend is my last bath, if I do not find any friends, I will be re-sowing the remaining colonies on the rock and continue with a maintenance dose of the product.

finally i have decided to add some wrasses (six lines, melanurus, yellow coris) to help me to a natural control if there were any friends

 

[The Opinionated Reefer]

I have been dosing AEFW-X for 6 weeks now and I can say for sure it does seem to be doing something to limit the number of flatworms but there are still some in the tank. The large colony of Acropora nana that seemed to have the most adult worms on it has fully recovered and I am not seeing any bite marks on it. Basting does not knock anything off and I had high hopes for them to have been eradicated. But lower down in the tank what remains of my red planet colony is still wasting away. I cant dip it as it's encrusted and I suspect it's the AEFW that is killing it or at least started the rot. I have a small myagi tort near the red planet and it was showing signs of STN so I fragged it and looked underneath to see some bite marks. Also another acro near that has a small number of bit marks but no stn. I dipped the frags I made and did not see anything come off the corals.

Perhaps these are eggs that have hatched in the meantime and will not go on to reproduce and spread the problem due to the AEFW-X.

I am dosing 15ml per day of AEFW-X into a Red sea reefer 350 and have enough to last another 60 days at that dose.

 

[ScottB]

I have been dosing AEFW-X for 6 weeks now and I can say for sure it does seem to be doing something to limit the number of flatworms but there are still some in the tank. The large colony of Acropora nana that seemed to have the most adult worms on it has fully recovered and I am not seeing any bite marks on it. Basting does not knock anything off and I had high hopes for them to have been eradicated. But lower down in the tank what remains of my red planet colony is still wasting away. I cant dip it as it's encrusted and I suspect it's the AEFW that is killing it or at least started the rot. I have a small myagi tort near the red planet and it was showing signs of STN so I fragged it and looked underneath to see some bite marks. Also another acro near that has a small number of bit marks but no stn. I dipped the frags I made and did not see anything come off the corals.

Perhaps these are eggs that have hatched in the meantime and will not go on to reproduce and spread the problem due to the AEFW-X.

I am dosing 15ml per day of AEFW-X into a Red sea reefer 350 and have enough to last another 60 days at that dose.

You needn't be afraid of doubling your dose in my experience. That would give you 10 total weeks of treatment on your existing supply. Just a thought.

 

[The Opinionated Reefer]

You needn't be afraid of doubling your dose in my experience. That would give you 10 total weeks of treatment on your existing supply. Just a thought.

Would doubling the dose be more effective though? This is expensive stuff and I am already above the recommended dose for my tank size. I thought the idea is to run it as long as possible to stop any adults breeding and prevent the young ones from maturing so that they eventually just die out.

 

[ScottB]

Would doubling the dose be more effective though? This is expensive stuff and I am already above the recommended dose for my tank size. I thought the idea is to run it as long as possible to stop any adults breeding and prevent the young ones from maturing so that they eventually just die out.

It was a common thing to do earlier in the thread. I did double for 8 weeks. I can't say for sure that "it worked" as I was dipping weekly as well. I KNOW that was working as I could count the bodies.

 

[The Opinionated Reefer]

It was a common thing to do earlier in the thread. I did double for 8 weeks. I can't say for sure that "it worked" as I was dipping weekly as well. I KNOW that was working as I could count the bodies.

I am going to keep running it at the current dose for another 8 weeks and see what happens. I have a feeling it will never fully exterminate the worms.

 

[jd-woodlands]

Based on emails back and forth with FM about AEFW-X... it is clear to me it does not actively target the worms directly. They started bringing up trace element shortages, wanted to see ICP tests, etc. If this was a true biocide / treatment, coral health and water parameters would be irrelevant with regards to the efficacy of targeting the flat worms directly. Add this to the long list of AEFW products that don't actually do what they say they do. I place this in the category of "boosting" (probably not) coral health and possibly a worm "irritant".

They also mentioned doing other treatments in parallel, dipping colonies in other products, basting them off, introducing natural predators, etc as keys to "success"... So they are relying on a kitchen sink approach, which again, clear to me it doesn't work directly on the worms.

 

[ScottB]

Based on emails back and forth with FM about AEFW-X... it is clear to me it does not actively target the worms directly. They started bringing up trace element shortages, wanted to see ICP tests, etc. If this was a true biocide / treatment, coral health and water parameters would be irrelevant with regards to the efficacy of targeting the flat worms directly. Add this to the long list of AEFW products that don't actually do what they say they do. I place this in the category of "boosting" (probably not) coral health and possibly a worm "irritant".

They also mentioned doing other treatments in parallel, dipping colonies in other products, basting them off, introducing natural predators, etc as keys to "success"... So they are relying on a kitchen sink approach, which again, clear to me it doesn't work directly on the worms.

The kitchen sink -- and I mean every element of it -- was the only thing that got me clear after about 8-10 weeks of weekly dips.

Even then, it only bought me about 5-6 months before they started to reappear. This is my second go around with them and I have been "clear" for about 3 weeks now. Clear means I cannot find anything in the dips. Potassium Chloride dips.

Sorry I cannot report more encouraging results.