Flat Worm Exit Disaster

[TahoeMtn]

Thanks to all of you for your kind words. The FWE was not expired it had an expiration date of 10/2010. I watched the Sea Apple very closely and saw no signs of him nuking the tank. The yellow came from the FWs as they died. I have seen the same color in my filters as I vac them out.

I guess the main thing I can say is get them early! If you see one there is probably 100. I spent 3 days blowing and vac'ing them before I put in the FWE. It does say in the instructions to be careful I really don't know how much more Salifert could do to warn us. But I hope that is what I am doing here. If the poison from FW's can kill Bristle worms think what it is doing to everything else.

I will probably move the few things I have left to a 29 gal tank put the big one in the garage and cook all the rock. I guess I can get a little relief in that my wife has always wanted to replace the floor in that room anyhow.

Time for and rest, it has been a very long weekend

[crvz]

Well way to look at the positive, Tahoe. Good luck on the tear down and re-establishing the tank!

[Geoff]

how old was the sand bed?

G~

[TahoeMtn]

for the most part it was BB. I had a small corner with sand for a tube anenome. He didn't make it either

[dobejazz]

I'm so sorry for your losses

[seasalt dreams]

Sorry for your losses, it sounds to me like the dying flatworms nuked your tank, not the chemical used to kill them.

[Geoff]

sounds like there were a lot more FW in there than it seemed.

G~

[fish.freak]

the only thing that makes me think sea apple, is it was the last man standing, and they are resistant to their own toxin.

[TahoeMtn]

I would just like to say it is my firm belief that it was the dead flatworms that caused my problems. I am sure that the FWE did what it is supposed to do. I just want to warn everybody that as soon as you see a FW take care of the problem. I had been seeing them in the tank for a month or two before I figured out what they were. Then I saw them all over my leather. So I went to my LFS and asked him to order some of the FWE for me (the store is an hour away) each time I went to the store "It was not there yet" so after a couple of months (and I vac'ed them every other day) I ordered some FWE from FosterSmith (it took 2 weeks to get here) the time finally came when I could use the stuff I raised the cover off my tank and vacc'ed for three days, moving rocks and blasting with a power head. I thought I would be safe.

So this post is mainly to say FWE works very well, but be VERY careful there are more FW in there than you could ever imagine. Use every precaution available to you. Remove your fish, Remove any LPS, dip them seperately (my zoa's seem to be waking up this morning) and I don't have any SPS so I can't offer any advise for them.

I am still not sure of my future plans, I am not done kicking myself or mourning yet.

[Fly Guy]

So sorry.

Good luck with rebuilding and when youre ready to start growing some new critters,let me know. Pick up shipping and Ill send you a care package.

Originally Posted by Twitterbait

If you ever use this product i recommend that you only use it as a dip and then thoroughly rinse all dead FW off your rocks and coral before placing them back in the tank.

It takes too long and is expensive. Thats what iodine and other products that CANT be safely used in the tank are for. the whole point of FWE is that it can (in most cases) be used safely in a loaded reef system.

[raskal311]

You must have had a huge amount of flat warm for your tank to react so badly. I’ve done 2-3x recommended dosage and leaving it in the tanks for as long as a week before water change and carbon and haven’t had a single problem. Key is to treat as soon as you see the flat warm and not letting it get out of hand before taking action.
fficeffice" />>>

[jph]

Originally Posted by TahoeMtn

The yellow came from the FWs as they died. I have seen the same color in my filters as I vac them out.

sorry man.

it looks like you nuked too many of them at the same time.

i used it once, when i barely had any flatworms visible (about 5 or so). it only ticked off my cerith snails.

a few weeks ago, i spotted what looked like about 50 or flatworms in one of my overflows, so i put a small minijet powerhed inside it, as i read that they don't like flow, and one week later, they were all gone.



J.

[raskal311]

They just disappeared without treatment? If so; I would treat just to make sure, 50 becomes thousands in no time.fficeffice" />>>
> >

[tdwyatt]

Folks, it i not the FWE that is toxic, but the fact that the med causes the FW's to lyse (explode, if you will (die skum!!!)) and almost immediately causes the body contents to be released into the tank's water coumn. The clue here is the yellow color to the water (this is the color of the flatworms), it is very toxic to vertebrates, and is not to great for any other higher organisms either. The toxic reaction to the sea apples is based on saponifiers that change the permeability of biological membranes, and usually (alwys as far as I know) requires that the sea zpple either release the tubules of Curvier or that they eviscerate, and even then is not that quick unless an organism is directly in contact with the sea apple's internal organs, even when more than one sea apple eviscerates or dies in a system.

This little disaster with the flatworms is usually the case that occurs when there is a large hidden population of these little pests, and they can be everywhere and out of sight even after you siphon the tank and blast the rock with a power head. This is why it is a good idea to remove amm the individual specimens into another system and dip/treat them accordingly, while you're nuking the display with FWExit: sometimes it is very difficult to estimate just how dense a population of flatworms you're dealing with.

So sorry to hear this happened, take a few months to let the rock cook and take a little vacation, but trust me, you'll start thinking about coming back into the fray soon.

Definitely don't sell your equipment!

[jph]

Originally Posted by raskal311

They just disappeared without treatment? If so; I would treat just to make sure, 50 becomes thousands in no time.fficeffice" />>>
> >

yes, my overflow boxes are the lowest flow area of the tank.
they don't stand a chance in any other area



J.