The tank is doing well overall, but I ran into a hurdle six weeks ago. I noticed one of the frags that was on the sand bed was losing some tissue. The water parameters had been stable without issue and most of my corals were growing well and developing nice coloration. I decided to dip the problem frag not expecting to see much. Unfortunately a couple of flat worms peeled off!
It was frustrating to say the least. I have been quarantining all of my corals. The quarantine regimen has evolved, and I had picked up some frags at a local fish store that didn't undergo the month long quarantine with weekly dipping, and I suspect that is how I introduced the pests. I discarded the frag and hoped that it was the only affected frag.
I started dipping various frags and initially was encouraged as I didn't find any more worms. As I made my way through the tank, 90 percent of the frags and colonies were clean without worms. But the other 10 percent had one or two worms.
I had recently noticed my oregon tort had lost its previous polyp extension, but didn't make much of it. Then I dipped it in the solution below and saw more than 30 worms peel off. It was a bit shocking the number of worms given that I couldn't even see one before I dipped the coral.
In the tank, under the lights, the tissue damage also was difficult to visualize, but it can be seen clearly on close inspection when the colony was out of the tank.
I found eggs at the base of the coral which I encased with glue. I also applied putty on the rock where this coral was located with the intent of covering any potential remaining eggs on the rocks.
Although very disappointed with the development, it was a good thing this happened at this stage and not later as the corals were larger and had grown onto the rocks. The majority of my frags are on a small rock base that I glue onto the aquascape rock. I removed the frags and attached a frag plug to the base rock.
Most of the fags were then placed onto one of two racks.
I am using a flat basin that can fit the larger frag rack. I can dip all of my acropora in two batches and the whole process from set up to clean up takes about 45 minutes. I add four gallons of fresh salt water to the aquarium, I then take 4 gallons of the water from the tank and add it to the basin. I add the loose colonies and smaller frag rack to the basin with only salt water because it takes a few minutes to grab the loose colonies. I then add melafix to the solution at the recommended 10 mL melafix / Liter of salt water. I baste the corals during the next 3-4 minutes and have all the corals back in the tank by about 5 minutes from the start of the process. The second batch is the large tray containing all the frags.
I started dipping the corals 6 weeks ago. I have not lost any corals with the exception of the first frag I discarded. The polyp extension on many of the corals has improved, the colors are a little worse on some of the frags, but overall everything has handled the dips well. I have the tank temperature 77-79 degrees. Here is the dipping schedule I've been using.
Week 0-2: Dipped twice / week
Week 2-4: Dipped once/ week
Week 4-8: Dipped once / 2 weeks
So far I am in week 6. I have not found any worms on the past three dips in the past four weeks. I will do one final dip in 2 weeks. If there are still no worms following the next treatment, then I will place the corals back on the rock work.
