I think I have flatworms

[atxchris1234]

What is the best way to take care of flatworms? Should I do the 15 sec freshwater dip or should I buy a 6 line wrasse?


Sorry if the pic doesn't tell you much. I can't figure out how to post larger ones.

http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/2/4911565740.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic/7703131)


Im glad we went to the meeting, we would have never caught this if we hadn't gone

[JimD]

Chris, email replied to...

[C.Mydas]

A link to the slide show from the meeting

http://www.maast.org/forums/showthread.php?p=590935#post590935

HTHs

[atxchris1234]

Went home for lunch and did a freshwater dip for 10 secs. the ph was good, temp was a chilly 75 degrees, but I didn't have a 2nd heater, so it was going to have to do.

I did the dip for 10 seconds, swooshed the water around a bit and put the coral back in my tank. Low and behold there were about 10 of these little boogers in the bottom of the bowl, a few more then I had counted on the coral (as was expected per the meeting)

The coral is now looking a bit sick. It has white stuff crusting on it in parts and is discharging its "slime" I can only cross my fingers and hope he pulls through.

In a related event (or unrelated) I checked my water parameters today and found that my ammonia is on its way to a full fledged spi-ke at 1.5 as compared to the 0 I read last week, my Nitrites are CERTAINLY reading 0.3 (I thought this was a maybe last week, but its definate now)

All in all... Everything that bill said would happen if I rushed is happening, only now its happening with some livestock in the tank which further complicates matters. Bill here is my official "you were right, I should have waited longer" statement. Guess people don't learn unless they make mistakes... in which case im learning quickly.

Now for the solution - a steady diet of water changes. Tonight I'll do 5-7 gallons and re check my numbers tomorrow. Need to pick up a calcium test and floating hydrometer today after work before my round 1 water changes begin.

Any tips or things to watch out for? This site is great, if it werent for you guys everything would be dead already.

[JimD]

Continue with the water changes until your levels straighten out and dont add any new livestock. Get yourself a small quarrentine tank, some flatworm exit, lugals and maybe some inteceptor in the future if you decide you want to try some sps. Other than that, pacience grahshahppa.

[Bill S]

Wow. Sorry to hear about this - that stinks.

Just keep up the water changes, as Jim says. Hopefully there's enough cured rock to handle it.

[stoneroller]

One more thing, ALWAYS dip any incoming zoas/palys using RO water and iodine. I make sure the polyps are closed before dipping. Swoosh em around and let them sit in there for a minute or so. Inspect every polyp!

PS. not sure if those are flatworms but could zoa-eating nudibranchs. If so, you'll have to check that colony for eggs and pull each cluster off, see PPT. I have rarely found a zoa colony rock from a LFS that didn't have them or sundials.

[Kristy]

Since you bring up the zoanthid eating nudibranch...

I just read a REALLY interesting article in Reef Hobbyist Magazine (the one they give out for free at several LFS) about how to treat for the zoanthid eating nudibranch. It's a well done study (small sample though) where they say dipping the zoas in a bowl of 2 - 4 cups of reef water plus four drops of Salifert's Flatworm Exit (FWE) for 60 seconds caused all the zoanthid eating nudibranchs to drop dead to the bottom of the bowl. The zoas were otherwise completely unaffected by the dip.

Haven't tried it yet but thought it sure was worth knowing about!

[atxchris1234]

Thanks for the tips. I picked up some iodine supplement yesterday, figure I can follow the manufacturers recommendation. Hopefully that'll help out my guys.

Came home yesterday after doing the dip at lunch. It was a horrible sight.

http://img2.putfile.com/thumb/2/5009584833.jpg (http://www.putfile.com/pic/7710318)

Poor guy looked pretty bad.


While doing my water change I sucked off a lot of that messy crusted up "slime" seen in the picture. I figured it couldn't be good for the other inhabitants. I did my water change, hooked everything back up, crossed my fingers and went to bed.

Woke up this morning to feed my guys. I generally turn on the light for one hour while feeding, just so I can see my guys more than anything. Im sure this practice doesn't necessarily help anything, but at any rate... after leaving the lights on for a good hour (while the fish fed and I got ready for work) I come in to look again and what do ya know.... green polyps starting to come back out again.

:whew:

Looks like everything will be fine. And im not extremely worried about the ammonia as I know its part of the cycle. I will continue to do water changes if it gets bad, but im not losing sleep.

Just need my quarantine tank and all will be good.

[tony]

grats dude

glad it worked out for you!

[atxchris1234]

Thanks tony, your protien skimmer works great man!

many exuberant thanks for that pal!



Im not in the clear by any means, there are still plenty of mistakes to be made, but at least I have avoided an impending doom for the time being.:angel:

[tony]

its your skimmer now ;)

if that accella pump is a little loud for you when it comes time to replace it do it with a rio. ive ran the maxijet, rio, and accella and the rio was the quietest of them all.

i also liked the fact that i had the extra chamber with it to run carbon or phosban as needed. it should kick some butt on your 30g

[atxchris1234]

i also liked the fact that i had the extra chamber with it to run carbon or phosban as needed.

Huh?

Uh.... Yyyeah. Gotcha.

One day I'll know what you're talking about and then I'll really love that skimmer!
:bigsmile:

[tony]

Huh?

Uh.... Yyyeah. Gotcha.

One day I'll know what you're talking about and then I'll really love that skimmer!
:bigsmile:

lol, the left hand side of the skimmer came with a biobale which i removed (the blue stuff in the below picture)

you can now use that compartment to run carbon which will polish your water or phosban which is a phosphate sponge (removes phosphates which cause algae)

you would just buy a filter sock or use something like pantyhose and run the media in it and just hang it inside the compartment by the bag. i just hung the bag over the triangle shaped piece of plexiglass that holds the skimmer on the edge of the tank.

http://www.cprusa.com/images/products/bp2a.jpg

[atxchris1234]

oooh. Another thing I can add to hold me over while my tank stabilizes... :thumbs_up:

And where might I find this..... media?

[tony]

oooh. Another thing I can add to hold me over while my tank stabilizes... :thumbs_up:

And where might I find this..... media?


any lfs or petstore. i run black diamond carbon and highly recommend it. you will notice a huge difference.


http://www.coralculture.co.uk/shop/images/backdiamond.jpg