Wormwood Treatment for AEFW

[LARedstickreefer]

While I don’t have any infestation, I decided to just dose this anyways Incase I ever wind up with them. Seems like a good idea to have my corals already “ready” for these little demons.

 

[Skibum]

You are quitting after two months? Most everyone still had worms around two months from what I remember. I sure did, population was small and weakening at that point though.
It’s not too good to be true, it’s worked for a lot of people. I think having patience, and starting early is when most people see success. I think it seems like the ones who don’t have success are the tanks that have heavy infestations and their corals were really struggling to start with. These worms are really hard to fight if you let them get to a certain number. Ime you still have to be proactive and watch your corals for the first four months, any colonies that started looking bad I would pull and scrape eggs from and make sure all worms were off before putting back in the tank so the coral could heal.
I imagine zeovit didn’t want to advertise this as an in tank treatment because of the tanks that had bad infestations might struggle a lot more than the tanks that caught the pests early.

No, not quitting. Just adding the dipping to the regimen. I'm going to keep going to 6 months. I suppose I was disappointed in the amount of adults and egg clusters I found. I just pulled a bunch of colonies that appeared okay on the front... but man on the back it was egg city. I thought I caught it early enough but I think it was under the covers enough to where I didn't notice until it got really bad. I'm still dosing 5 ML FWS daily for my 54 Gallon RS 250. But I'm also dipping the corals (acros) I have left with CoralRx every 3 days or so.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Oh okay good! Yea that’s why I always try and tell people to pull every coral and check them before starting any treatment because these worms seem to know where you can’t see and they will hide in the big colonies backsides like they know you won’t break them off the rocks to find them. I think people not knowing how bad their infestation was when they started the treatment is why a lot of people were disappointed when this product first came out. They thought they had just a small amount of worms and then months later when they expect results they find where all the worms were hiding and blame the product for not working. When really it’s just starting to work and the worms were there from the start.
Good luck! I think dipping all the corals and scraping any eggs is the best way to continue. I would just dip every week personally. Three days isn’t much time for the corals to recover. I would dip once a week and look for eggs twice a week if I was really wanting to be proactive. Either way I hope people continue to try this method so we can perfect the process and have results with ever person trying to beat aefw populations in their reef.

Would love to hear from anyone else who has used this method or is just starting to treat their tank for aefw. With everyone mostly at home I figured there would be a rise in the amount of aefw that are noticed. If you don’t know what they look like and are collecting acropora, do some research and get ahead of it before you get them. It’s only an amount of time before it happens in this hobby.

 

[aarbutina]

So for those using FWS, I have this question, why do a double dose? It isn't exactly clear to me what the supposed benefit is. One would think that the manufacturer recommended dose would be sufficient. If it wasn't why wouldn't they recommend a 2x dose?

I ask because I also just started to treat my tank with FWS, but only at the recommended dose. What am I missing here?

 

[Graffiti Spot]

There were a lot of people doing the recommended dose at the start and most never saw the worms completely die off, some said they did though. They don’t make as much money if the worms all die anyways because then the product isn’t needed.

 

[aarbutina]

There were a lot of people doing the recommended dose at the start and most never saw the worms completely die off, some said they did though. They don’t make as much money if the worms all die anyways because then the product isn’t needed.

Doesn’t seem like the best marketing plan to sell something that doesn’t work as suggested only to hope people buy more. Just saying.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I believe they Changed their label shortly after they released it.

 

[aarbutina]

I believe they Changed their label shortly after they released it.

My bottle says 1 ml per 25 gallons, what are people dosing as a double dose then?

 

[LARedstickreefer]

My bottle says 1 ml per 25 gallons, what are people dosing as a double dose then?

2mL per 25 gallons.

 

[Skibum]

So I was dosing about 5 ML FWS daily for about 70 days. I noticed a TON of eggs after that time period on one of my smooth skinned stags. After that I'd had enough. I finally tore down my tank to the point where I ditched 60% of the rock, de-encrusted all acros and put them on tiles, then started dipping with CoralRx. I'm dipping all acros every 7 days. I just finished a dip last night, less worms came off then last dip, and noticed way fewer bite marks. Did FWS help? Probably, but I didn't want to see the rest of my acros getting eaten while waiting another 4 months.

What I'm doing now is 2 ML FWS daily, (for ~60 Volume gallon total) and weekly CoralRx dip. I think that should speed up the process to get rid of these ravenous pests. We'll see ;-)

 

[jsvand5]

So I was dosing about 5 ML FWS daily for about 70 days. I noticed a TON of eggs after that time period on one of my smooth skinned stags. After that I'd had enough. I finally tore down my tank to the point where I ditched 60% of the rock, de-encrusted all acros and put them on tiles, then started dipping with CoralRx. I'm dipping all acros every 7 days. I just finished a dip last night, less worms came off then last dip, and noticed way fewer bite marks. Did FWS help? Probably, but I didn't want to see the rest of my acros getting eaten while waiting another 4 months.

What I'm doing now is 2 ML FWS daily, (for ~60 Volume gallon total) and weekly CoralRx dip. I think that should speed up the process to get rid of these ravenous pests. We'll see ;-)

Have you tried using Bayer? Much better and easier on acros than CoralRX IMO.

 

[jda]

Getting some anecdotal notes and suggestions to go without a skimmer after dosing... at least for a while. The patient zero tank did have a skimmer, but he has really low turnover like 4-5x per hour, so while the skimmers are really good, this is not heavy skimming. Worth a shot.

He also ran no GAC. I did get a note from a guy who was not having success who kept a large BRS canister full of GAC - I have not heard back once he took it offline.

 

[Skibum]

Getting some anecdotal notes and suggestions to go without a skimmer after dosing... at least for a while. The patient zero tank did have a skimmer, but he has really low turnover like 4-5x per hour, so while the skimmers are really good, this is not heavy skimming. Worth a shot.

He also ran no GAC. I did get a note from a guy who was not having success who kept a large BRS canister full of GAC - I have not heard back once he took it offline.

I hadn't heard about the skimmer needing to be taken off line after dosing.. good to know, makes sense logically.

 

[Skibum]

Have you tried using Bayer? Much better and easier on acros than CoralRX IMO.

I have not tried using Bayer. I'm just using CoralRx due to the convenience factor and really not knowing what I'm doing with Bayer. Although I've heard the Bayer insect killer is more gentle and effective.

 

[Skibum]

FYI I thought people may want to see an infested coral with eggs after it was dried out in the Sun for a bit. RIP GARF Bonsai and unknown Acro:

 

[ScottB]

Sadly, it looks like I am joining the club. Argh. With 300G of frag system, I guess I need the liter bottle.

By the time I saw my first colony start to go, I found them everywhere. My melanurus wrasse is about to get some company. How many six-lines can you put in one tank?

 

[jda]

Arrow crabs, hermits, shrimp will all eat them if they can get to them. It is easy with frags, harder with colonies. I have only really notice the fish eat them if you baste them and they enter the water column.

 

[ScottB]

Arrow crabs, hermits, shrimp will all eat them if they can get to them. It is easy with frags, harder with colonies. I have only really notice the fish eat them if you baste them and they enter the water column.

Thanks. I will give them all a try. I cannot keep peppermints in that tank as somebody in there chases them out every single time. Ordered the KZ FW Stop

For better or worse, the aefws are in in my frag system. Spent 2 hours yesterday scraping eggs and worms. Ugh. Would be impossible without a big lens.

 

[Skibum]

If

Thanks. I will give them all a try. I cannot keep peppermints in that tank as somebody in there chases them out every single time. Ordered the KZ FW Stop

For better or worse, the aefws are in in my frag system. Spent 2 hours yesterday scraping eggs and worms. Ugh. Would be impossible without a big lens.

I'm at the tail end of my battle with these buggers. If you can, start dipping the most infected colonies frags right away. KZ will not work fast enough if you have an infestation of them. Rip out the colonies, save what you can is my advice FWIW.

-Tom

 

[ScottB]

If


I'm at the tail end of my battle with these buggers. If you can, start dipping the most infected colonies frags right away. KZ will not work fast enough if you have an infestation of them. Rip out the colonies, save what you can is my advice FWIW.

-Tom

Thanks Tom. Brought home some Melafix last night, dipped and basted one 11" rack of frags & small colonies. Probably 40-50 worms came off so I am hating life right now.

I am more comfortable dipping Bayer, but the Melafix seemed to dislodge them pretty well and the sticks look OK this morning with normal polyp extension. Another dozen racks to go.

Making some calls this morning to buy out all the six-lines in the tri-state area per a suggestion from @ctpeasy.