Invasion of the flat worms! What now?

[Abarnswell]

Well, now that my algae bloom is over and gone, and my reef tank is looking crystal clear and gorgeous, and all of my fish and corals have found their "happy places," I now have these weird little green rectangles with "mouths" on my glass. I'm pretty sure they are flatworms.

I did a siphon/scrape to get them off my glass, but I imagine they are in the rocks, too, and probably in the sand and other places that are harder to get to. Should I use a treatment to get rid of these?

I found a product called "Salifert Flatworm Exit", which is used to remove flatworms.

"Salifert Flatworm Exit is a safe solution to get rid of flatworms in your tank. It is perfectly harmless for the reef inhabitants, both fish and invertebrates, but definitely deadly for the flatworms. Flatworm body juice can be toxic for the reef when present in high concentration. Flatworm eXit treats up to 300 gallons."

Has anyone used this? Should I go ahead and do it?

 

[dragon79]

there's a post somewhere around here of people who have posted and shows what the flatworm looks like. If that matches what you have, go ahead and use it. That product is continually recommended by all on this site and other sites as well. Very positive results!

 

[mikeguerrero]

Double check this product becuase I've heard mixed results...

Mike

 

[Anonymous]

heres a couple of threads for you in nano - I'm sure there are more and also more at RC and WWM
http://www.nanotank.com/forum/viewtopic ... 6251#16251
and
http://www.nanotank.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1833
hope it helps, and as mike says there is always inherient risk with any of these type of products, so research carefully and use with care - DJ has the most experience with this product so be sure to search his threads as well

 

[skipm]

Here is a recent link that may be of some help: http://www.nanotank.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2100 .
One thing that I have found alot of reefers do when they are dosing tanks is that they figure out their systems volume instead of the amount of water in the system, this means that they are overdosing their tanks with whatever it is that they are dosing. Things like LR and LS shouldn't be figured into the volume when dosing medications. HTH, Skip

 

[leaffish75]

Flatworm exit works wonders. No that being said you have to follow the instructs to a T otherwise bye bye tank. Have carbon handy to run and enough fresh saltwater for about 4 changes. I used it on my 20L and wiped them all out with one treatment.

 

[Phischy]

FWE does work wonders and I've had recurring FW problems due to the amount of LR in my tank and places for the little buggers to hide. I did it right according to the directions the first few times but they came back noticeably within a month. I've got a 40gallon so what I do now is use about 1/2 the product at once. I let it go in the tank until I see them start to shrivel up, then I take a powerhead and I start to blow water everywhere, into all the nooks and crannies. Hurricane Eric, the corals sort of take a beating, but it's more akin to what they'd find in nature anyway. I do avoid aiming at the sand, I dont' need that mess to deal with either.

Once I'm sure the FWE has been shot into every part of the tank I can reach, I let the tank sit for another 20 mins. Then I add carbon to start pulling the posionious juices out of the water that the FW excrete.

An hour later when the water has cleared I change my polysock and call it good. I may or may not do a water change. For the record I've never lost any corals, but everything I have are easy and hardy such as shrooms/zoas/xenia/flower pot/polyps and three fish.

It is fun to watch them shrivel up though. Thinking of it, I really need to look and see if I see any tonight. I may dose just to kill the buggers I don't see.