A
Anonymous
Guest
Again sorry for the long script but it may help someone.........
OK this summer some time I got flat worms (red planarians - the type that don't hurt anything but are quite the eyesore) from either a piece of live rock or a coral I introduced to my 125. I then, through bad practices of my own, introduced them to all my tanks. I was moving stomatella snails into my hex on rock so they got in there and I put a peice of rock from my 125 into my 20 so they got in there. After battling those buggers with basic husbandry like blowing them off the rock and vacumming for more then two months without much success I decided to try flatworm exit. I hit my 35 hex first cause the population in there was minimal. I followed the instuctions completely and then did a 30% water change and ran carbon. By the next day all of my montis had bleached to some degree (the acros were apparently uneffected), so I quickly raised the pendent and dropped the photoperiod. I am now about 2 weeks after treatment and all but one corals has fully recovered and that one is on the way to recovery. So friday night I decided to hit my 125. I removed as many of the "delicate" corals as I could and dosed the tank. To my suprise it was the "hardy" corals that took the hit this time. All of my mushrooms shriveled up and look like total crap, my purple tongans started to expell mesentary filiments and my gorgeous 8 inch elephant ear shrivaled up to about 3 inches at best. The other coral that was hit the hardest was my branching hammer - I fear it may not recover. So once again I reduced the photoperiod by cutting it in half and will add an hour every day or so to the white (actinics are still at full) till I get back up. Everything looked better today but the hammer and the and the 2 shrooms I mentioned.
conclusions, three possibilities:
1) the chemical in there itself effects corals - not likely as others have used it without ill effects.
2) the worm toxin hurt the corals - also not likely as the pop in my 125 was substantial but the population in the hex was very minimal and the water change and carbon use should have removed it.
3) the large water changes and the very heavy, increased use of carbon clarified the water very suddenly. Anecdotally, I believe this to be the cause. Although I use carbon on a semi regular basis the extent I used it to remove this chemical and the worm juice was heavy. In both tanks the corals that were most effected by the treatment were the lower light critters. I can not prove this of course but think that reducing photoperiod whenever using something like this may be a wise choice - just in case.
by the way - the corals I removed for safe keeping were returned and seem to be doind fine and the flatworms although greatly reduced in both tanks still exist
Also none of my fish or inverts - snails, clams, or shrimp were effected in any way, although the fish are stressed and very fidgety???????
OK this summer some time I got flat worms (red planarians - the type that don't hurt anything but are quite the eyesore) from either a piece of live rock or a coral I introduced to my 125. I then, through bad practices of my own, introduced them to all my tanks. I was moving stomatella snails into my hex on rock so they got in there and I put a peice of rock from my 125 into my 20 so they got in there. After battling those buggers with basic husbandry like blowing them off the rock and vacumming for more then two months without much success I decided to try flatworm exit. I hit my 35 hex first cause the population in there was minimal. I followed the instuctions completely and then did a 30% water change and ran carbon. By the next day all of my montis had bleached to some degree (the acros were apparently uneffected), so I quickly raised the pendent and dropped the photoperiod. I am now about 2 weeks after treatment and all but one corals has fully recovered and that one is on the way to recovery. So friday night I decided to hit my 125. I removed as many of the "delicate" corals as I could and dosed the tank. To my suprise it was the "hardy" corals that took the hit this time. All of my mushrooms shriveled up and look like total crap, my purple tongans started to expell mesentary filiments and my gorgeous 8 inch elephant ear shrivaled up to about 3 inches at best. The other coral that was hit the hardest was my branching hammer - I fear it may not recover. So once again I reduced the photoperiod by cutting it in half and will add an hour every day or so to the white (actinics are still at full) till I get back up. Everything looked better today but the hammer and the and the 2 shrooms I mentioned.
conclusions, three possibilities:
1) the chemical in there itself effects corals - not likely as others have used it without ill effects.
2) the worm toxin hurt the corals - also not likely as the pop in my 125 was substantial but the population in the hex was very minimal and the water change and carbon use should have removed it.
3) the large water changes and the very heavy, increased use of carbon clarified the water very suddenly. Anecdotally, I believe this to be the cause. Although I use carbon on a semi regular basis the extent I used it to remove this chemical and the worm juice was heavy. In both tanks the corals that were most effected by the treatment were the lower light critters. I can not prove this of course but think that reducing photoperiod whenever using something like this may be a wise choice - just in case.
by the way - the corals I removed for safe keeping were returned and seem to be doind fine and the flatworms although greatly reduced in both tanks still exist
Also none of my fish or inverts - snails, clams, or shrimp were effected in any way, although the fish are stressed and very fidgety???????
