flatworm exit, bio pellets, gfo and carbon.....

[noobtothereef]

Ok, here goes, i have flatorms in my tank(red planaria) i want to get rid of them, also my nitrates are at 15ppm+ and phosphates are at .5ppm, i have a 180 gallon system, not much livestock in it right now, im going to treat the tank with flatworm exit, then do a 70 gallon water change and then fill both chamber sin my brs dual reactor with carbon. The water change will rid the system of the flatworm exit, the toxins from the flatworms etc and also lower my nitrates , i wanted to lower my nitrates before i start the brs bio pellets, heres what i want to do in steps

1-take carbon and gfo offline
2-treat with flatworm exit
3-70 gallon water change
4-brd dual reactor with carbon in both brought online
5-bio pellet reactor brought online
6-1 week later start 30 gallon wc regiment every 2 weeks
7-start gfo after nitrates have dropped considerably so i dont starve the bacteria of phosphates

do you see any problems with this? will the remaining flatworm exit hurt the pellets? I will also be dosing zeobak for the pellets

[bertoni]

I wouldn't do a large water change like that. They can do more harm than good. I might do 15% a day for a few days, though.

I'd follow the directions on the Flatworm Exit very carefully. I seemed to need a second dose a few days later to get rid of all of them.

Other than the large water change, the approach seems reasonable.

[noobtothereef]

The large water change is mainly to reduce the nitrates before starting the bio pellets, doing a 40% wc is alot more efficient than doing 4-10% wc's, again i dont have much for livestock in the tank at the momment, im basically draining the entire sump(50 gallonsish) and 10-20 from the dt, just enough to vacuum the deritus from low flow areas on the sandbed, im installing 2 koralia evo 1400's to combat the low flow areas after the water change tomorrow, personally the livestock that is in the tank is very hardy and can take some abuse lol So i think im going to stick with the 60-70 gallon water change, and i will have to grab another bottle of fwe tuesday or wednesday to do round #2 of fwe treatment to kill of any of them that have hatched from eggs after the first treatment, after that im introducing a six line wrasse or possible a malanarus wrasse.

Im mainly just trying to get rid of the fw's and lower my nitrates before i get any type of coral thats orth anything and that i care about. I see where you are coming from on the large water change, if i had stocked tank i definately would not do it and would stick to the 10-15% but the trates gotta go!

[bertoni]

Actually, 4 10% water changes remove about 34% of any contaminants, which is about the same as a 40% change. The problem with large changes is that they can expose live rock and stress animals, both of which can be bad. If there's not much in there, though, the amount at risk is low, though. :)

[noobtothereef]

With the large water change my rock will still be under water :) the tank is a 120 and 20 gallons out of it will only bring me down 4", the other 40-50 will be from the sump and fuge. the water change is probably closer to 60 gallons , i have a 70 gallon container but the max is about 60 for it.