Flatworm Exit + SPS

[rleechb]

Has anyone else noticed flatworm exit having a detrimental effect on sps? I used the product about 4 times about 3 months ago, and noticed bleaching and drastically slowed growth (especially in plating montis). The "healing process" took about 2 months.

[REEF-DADDY]

I have not had any effect good or bad. since it does not kill AEFW I stopped using it.

[Jar*Head]

I have use Flatworm exit a few times to kill the regular flatworm without any adverse affect on the SPS. If i remember correctly each bottle treated 300g water, i use 2 bottle in my 240g system :). The question is

How much carbon were you add into the system?

How much water did you change?

How wet did you skim your tank?

Most important, How much or many flatworms did you have in the system?

if you have lots of FW, their toxic will cause the corals to stress and potential to bleached. If you running too much carbon for a long period of time also cause bleaching.

[rleechb]

There weren't that many flatworms; I siphoned as many as I could out of the water prior to treatment. I've heard about people having enough flatworms to cause the water to have a slightly red appearance; my water never got close to that.

10g water change every week for 3 weeks afterwards (small system, maybe 50g total).

1 filter bag full of carbon + ozone.

Skimming was fairly wet, but the skimmer at the time was a CSS125 (far from the best skimmer).

[polypman]

Big time disaster. Read on....

http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/marine-tank-problems/2648-distaster-strikes-all-even-me.html

[SDguy]

I agree with reefer714. I use the product at a very stronge dose in my dips for new corals. If the product itself hurt acros, I'd have lost a lot of acros by now.

[Dog boy Dave]

I did have an event in my tank when I used flateworm exit but in my case it was the toxic effects of the flatworms themselves. This was several years ago when the AEFW were just becoming a threat. I attempted to treat them and my water did indeed turn the color of weak tea. All the corals bleached within a couple of minutes to white or brown. All green disappeared completely . Several fish died and those that lived were stressed for months afterwards. I did massive water changes and added carbon but I dealt with the effects of that event in the tank for many months afterwards. Who knows what it did to the biology of the tank overall as far as micro org deaths. Pretty dangerous stuff. I would recommend wrasses to any one who asked me now how to control the harmless flatworms and quarantine for the AEFW. But know body asked me did they? Hah! They wouldn't listen anyway.
Happy Reefing.
Dave

[Jar*Head]

Hello Dave, i have 30 fish in my system, 8 tangs 22 wrasses, including Yellow coris, and 6 lines. Unless you blow the FW off the corals or rock so the fish can eat them or else it is hard for the fish to locate FW from rock or corals eps toadstool. Just my $.2c

[Dog boy Dave]

I agree ther wrasses are not effective to take care of the acro flatworms but they do keep my systems clear of the more common variety off the glass and the rock. Only agressive dipping and qarantine will knock out the AEFW.

[nealdo]

i bet the problems experienced were due to due off. I have had no issues the one time i used it on my 92 corner sps.

[8BALL_99]

Just a couple of weeks ago I lost 3 fish and Bleached several Acro's. I even lost my Staghorn. I did a 30 Gallon water change in my system thats about 260 gallons. I ended up running Lots of Carbon and doing 40 gallon water changes every day for about 4 days.. Everything is starting to come back now.. But I was very worried for a few days. We had alot of red flat worms in the rocks in under corals ect. But my water never turned any colors. It did start to smell like the worms though.

I think Flatworm Exit is very safe itself.. I've used it a few times with NP at all. If you have alot of worms then watch out..Even if your standing by ready with LOTs of carbon and water changes, they help but you still might loose some fish and corals!

[Dog boy Dave]

No doubt the issues were caused by the toxic flatworms and not by the flatworm exit itself