flatworm exit

[susannew]

we just did the flatworm exit yesterday and killed almost all teh flatworms after an hour or so but today there are still some live ones in there... would it be ok to run it through the system again today? its a 10 gallon with mushrooms and rbta and some snails?

[BA]

too many dead flatworms can destroy a tank, they release toxins when dieing...

[matt]

If you followed the instructions with the flatworm exit, you've siphoned out all the dead ones you can find, right? And you've run carbon through a canister to remove the toxins from the dead flatworms? I'd wait a few days, maybe change some water, then hit the tank again. i found that doubling the dose of the flatworm exit helps quite a bit, in your case 20 drops rather than 10. But, the real trick is to get rid of absolutely as many flatowrms as possible by siphoning, both before and after the treatment. Since it's just a 10 gal, I'd consider taking out each rock and dipping it in a bucket with a heavy dose of flatworm exit, swirling it around to knock off any dead flatworms, and while you've got the rocks out, try to siphon as many as you can get on the sand.

Good luck!

[susannew]

we only used 7 or 8 drops due to the water displacment with the live rock and sand, that may be why not all of them died, siphoned them out as they died and as i saw them floating. will try to wait a couple of days and try again. So you think we should use the 20 drops? think we have around 15 or 18 lbs of rock in there.. if thats the case then I think 20 drops will surely kill them all

[::pete::]

There is definitely survivors deep in the rock work, you cant see them all. The treatment will not hurt, but the toxins will. If you killed most then in @ 3 days after running carbon and doing water changes hit the tank again. If you dont kill them all you will battle this again. The medicine does nothing to the tank, but the toxins from the worms will kill.

When I treated, I didnt think I had aproblem because I did it early. I followed all the directions and still had flat worms. I dosed agin a week later and then again 3 days later and have not seen any since.

Use carbon afterwards to get the dead worm toxins out not the medicine.

Hopefully that makes sense.

[witecap4u]

Im going to be doing this on my 100 gal this weekend. Hopefully everything will go well. Im going to doubledose, and make a filter for the siphon so I can run the water from my tank back to the sump, and filter out the dead worms and not loose water in the process. I think the next day I will do a water change, and see how the worms are doing and possibly do a single dose after 3 days depending. I also have a hot magnum Im going to use to run carbon...

cs

[GaryP]

I have some poly filters my wife made for me that I put the overflow hoses in. This catches the dead worms when they go through the overflow. The seem to turn into floaters when they die.

I was going to treat my tanks again, but my Yellow Coris wrasse in one tank, and velvet nudibranchs in the other, seem to be slowly knocking them down. I've never seen the nudibranchs, but I assume they are still alive because the flatworm population is down considerably. They probably come out at night when I can't see them.

Gary

[dan203]

wht do flatworms look like? Bristle worms are reef safe...right?

[GaryP]

Flatworms are 1/8 tp 1/4 inch long, brownish red, oval shaped. You can usually see them on your glass when the lights come on.

Bristle worms are good unless they get so big that they sting fish. Most are usually pretty small. They are good detritivores.

Gary