Wormwood Treatment for AEFW

[jda]

I have seen, smelled and looked at Purge, but would not put it in my tank. I don't trust UWC and I am pretty sure that they lied about it not having wormwood. In any case, after a few darn-near crashes for the locals, including a lot of losses, they are onto the long-term FWS approach.

 

[oldnsalty]

I ordered some wormwood powder just now. will be here by tuesday. My thrifty side decided to try @jda recipe and see how it works. My systems total volume is around 350 gallon and at double dose I would use almost 900 ml a month, at $140 a liter I would be out a small fortune with 6 months of dosing.
thanks

 

[jda]

Please keep us informed. I have had a few dozen people report back success with the wormwood a few months in, but few of them have ever let me know how it went after 5-6 months when they should be at total eradication. A few people have successfully finished the race, but I never hear from most of them again after a few PMs to get them going.

 

[joseserrano]

@jda do you recommend dosage all at once or through the day?

 

[joseserrano]

Also, is there a better time to dose, night vs day, right when the tank turns off or on, or peak hours,....?

 

[oldnsalty]

I am dosing mine with my doser putting 3 ml into the tank every other hour for a total of 36ml per day. I have such a small population of worms I dont know if my tank will be a good test subject. I basted all the corals today and only saw one small worm come off. last week I found one monster and several smaller ones. I hate basting, my corals are hours to extend back out and cant imagine they like it much.

 

[oldnsalty]

Its been a month in with the treatment. I noticed no difference in any of the corals either good or bad. No effects on any of the fish or inverts. Two weeks ago I found about 3 worms, I would say medium size. Yesterday I found just one that was about 1/4in long. Just about finished my first bottle of mix which was close to 1500 ml. Ill keep dosing and blowing off the corals for the full 6 months.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Around the month mark is where you will see the drop in worms and eggs, keep going. After two+ months you should not really see them at all unless you had a good infestation. Maybe one will blow off every now and then at around 2 months.
I am still very sad not more people are catching on to this method. I struggled so bad with these worms when I had them I wish we knew back then about this stuff. Unless you are dipping colonies weekly to kill a population fast, this should be the next step, and honestly it really would help during the dipping process as well.

I would love to hear how anyone is making their wormwood mix. Anyone bothered to press the pulp to make a mix?

 

[joseserrano]

Any follow up, I have been using it for a month or so, no bad results. Thinking of doubling dose. I don't have flatworms though, just doing it to try and boost coral health like flatworm exit has been suggested to do.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Any follow up, I have been using it for a month or so, no bad results. Thinking of doubling dose. I don't have flatworms though, just doing it to try and boost coral health like flatworm exit has been suggested to do.

Kz flatworm stop
Not flatworm exit

 

[oldnsalty]

Two months into using wormwood now. Using the mix @jda recommended and I strain out the solids. I have only seen random worms in my display tank while basting. No worms within the last week or so. I only hit my corals with a turkey baster maybe 2 times a week. The basting really seems to irritate my corals and they wont extend their polyps for hours afterwards. I did find some bite marks and one very small cluster of eggs on one frag in my frag system last night. Currently dosing 1 ml per 10 gallons. I adjusted my dose to 1.5 ml. I havent noticed any negative effect to the tank at all. I believe I will dip the corals that are in my frag tank to see how bad things are. I will keep this thread updated with my progress.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I think basting the corals is good for them. Cleaning the rocks they live on and making sure nothing is settling in any cracks in the coral is a good thing. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I would bet soon you won’t see any worms anymore and if you do they won’t be making any damage at all. The eggs will probably hatch and slowly starve if they do. Do you see any bite marks anymore? Also don’t give up if you are, each tanks different and some might take a little extra time.

 

[joseserrano]

I was doing it up until recently. Kept getting little almost dead white spots on the colonies. If you ever had Pocillopora or similar corals spawn in your system looks like where the stuff lands.

 

[LARedstickreefer]

How about dosing this stuff wether or not you have worms? Does it stress the coral at all? I think that I read that it causes the coral to beef up it’s slime coat. If that’s the case, wouldn’t this likely be a defense against bacterial infections that causes stn?

Could this benefit a coral before fragging it?

 

[Realposition]

I would like to know this as well. The conscensus used to be it made the slime coat thicker and harder for the worms to penetrate. Is that the same mechanism with wormwood powder?

 

[LARedstickreefer]

I would like to know this as well. The conscensus used to be it made the slime coat thicker and harder for the worms to penetrate. Is that the same mechanism with wormwood powder?

This seems like a no brainer, but slime equals energy and elements to produce, could be taxing on the coral or cause more energy to be diverted away from growth.

 

[jda]

I think that the "slime" thing or that something makes them "less palatable" is pure bunk invented by a vendor. However, I have no proof of anything, but neither do they. Wormwood is a natural anti parasitic - proven and tested with actual science... so I would start there...

 

[LARedstickreefer]

I think that the "slime" thing or that something makes them "less palatable" is pure bunk invented by a vendor. However, I have no proof of anything, but neither do they. Wormwood is a natural anti parasitic - proven and tested with actual science... so I would start there...

So what is it affecting in the worm itself? I’d like to find something for hydroids. I have those fluorescent type that grow all over the dern place. Also have those micro spirobid worms that are reaching plague levels.

 

[nicsound]

Great thread, thank you @jda and those keeping us posted on their progress with an effective and economical in-tank treatment of the acro eating flatworm nightmare.. hopefully

I just discovered these horrors in my reef. System volume is about 230 gallons so I was shocked at the cost to run FWS for long enough, even at single dosage and I have concerns about Purge. Also, Purge isn't much more economical at the cost here in the UK.

So I'm going for it! Gonna give the wormwood a go but I want to try work out some kind of protocol? It's obviously a bit difficult when the raw material is something of an unknown but I hope that if we can give as much detail to our methods with some long term results, this thread should gain traction and get more testers on board.

So in that vein, all those that are testing or have tested could you please summerise your method..

What wormwood are you using? And how are you processing it? Maybe link

Recipe? Weight of wormwood, volume of water, time steeping, Filtered? Pressed?

Dosage? Timing? Skimmer off?

Other factors; Water changes, Ozone, Activated Carbon, other treatments etc.


Maybe I'm overthinking it or there are more important things I haven't concidered.

Thanks in advance for everyone's input and I really hope I'm not hijacking your thread jda but didn't want to separate the info by starting another on the same subject.

Can't wait to get started! Nic

 

[nicsound]

So, I did a lot of reading on wormwood and herbalism and tinctures and extracting and.. then decided to do what you did, lol.

Mixed a quarter cup of Wormwood powder in a 2 litre bottle of RODI and shook well to make a lovely, frothy, brown potion which I have been shaking regularly for a couple of days and have now started dosing 20ml in a 200gallon system (1ml per 10gallon).

For now I have left the skimmer running and do not run carbon or ozone but do run very fine socks.

The water is a dark tea colour even when settled so I am hoping that the liquid will contain enough of the active ingredient to be effective. What do you all think? Carry on dosing just the liquid? Shake before dosing? Strain it? Could put it through a cafetiere to strip some of the solids or through a paper filter to get it all?

I was feeling pretty confident about this after the first 2 doses but after dosing tonight I'm very concerned. About a minute after dosing the mix, distributing it around the display, I noticed one of my tuxedo urchins fall off the front glass, closely followed by my long spine urchin tumbling down the side of the display.

I watched them both for a while and they both went back to what they were doing but my longspine's butt bubble is not evident and I can't say I've ever seen that before. It usually has a black bubble with an orange "eye" on top but there now just appears to be a hole.

I'll check him again tomorrow as I can't remember looking at him in the dark. I'll never forget discovering fish had night colours '

Do any of you that have tried this treatment keep urchins? Any effect on them? Or for that matter, anemones or clams? Or any other sensitive animals that have or have not been effected?

Thanks, Nic