Oh Jeez, Am I in trouble? (flatworms...need ID)

reef_noob · 10-23-2005, 09:01 PM

Ok, so recently, I started noticing these little orange and red flakey things growing in my refuge. I just assumed that they were some sort of algae and nothing to worry about. Today, however, I noticed that they seem to be multiplying quite rapidly,. In addition, upon closer inspection, they actually move! So, I guess this is some sort of flatworm? Can anyone ID it? Is it harmful? Can they be eradicated?

wharyat · 10-23-2005, 09:23 PM

Flatworms; they are not harmful unless they are in big numbers, they can starve corals of light by covering them. Other than that they are fine. There growth rate indicates how dirty the water or substrate is.

Flatworm eXit by Salifert is an excellent removal chemical.

reef_noob · 10-23-2005, 09:27 PM

Hmm, been doing a bit o'research on these buggers. There are easily hundreds of'em visible now. It sounds like a good reason to dump the sand bed in my refuge... Maybe time to completely rethink the refuge...

Casey · 10-23-2005, 09:28 PM

Flatworm exit will zap em

Loverotties · 10-23-2005, 09:46 PM

Use the exit!

Doug1 · 10-23-2005, 10:40 PM

If you kill em off dosing Exit they can release toxin that can harm the rest of the tank.
Do a search on Flatworms and Exit, JennM has several posts that detail flatworm treatment

Ilovefish · 10-24-2005, 09:53 AM

Flatworm exit is the way to go!-----Just be sure to syphon out the dead flatworms immediately and run carbon for a day or two----you will be fine.

coralfreak · 10-24-2005, 10:02 AM

I have the same in my tank but not much a huge amount of them, they seem to slowly dissapear every water change I do. I started to use ro/di water like 3-4 25% water changes ago so maybe that's why they are dissapearing.