pitmindi
05/01/2012, 10:30 PM
Hi, I have a 34 gallon red sea tank. It had been operating over 3 years with seahorses, etc. Some of my seahorses died so I gave the remaining away and decided to treat my tank for flatworms, which I have had for at least 2 years. The visible critters in my tank were a fire shrimp, a pom pom crab, brittle stars, snails, hermits, and brittle worms. I fed lightly the weeks before I treated my tank, since there weren't any remaining seahorses. A few days before I treated my tank I syphoned the visible flatworms off the glass, using small airline tubing, which is how I controlled the flatworms for the last 2 years. I turned off my skimmer and my pumps, took out the hermit crabs and snails that I could see and started with a double dose. I put the critters in a bucket with some tank water. After an hour the brittle worms came out and looked dead so I put them in the bucket. I continued to remove all brittle worms and snails that I saw throughout the day. I added a third dose after about 2 hours, then turned on the skimmer and pump for circulation. I added another dose after about 4 hours then a 5th dose in the 5th hour. I let everything alone for about 10 hours then changed about half the water. I never did see many flatworms, less than 100 or so tiny ones dead on the sandbed. I thought there would be thousands since I have had them for so long and they become epidemic whenever I added phyto to my tank for the copepods. Anyways, I guess I didn't have too many. I stirred the rim of the sandbed around the glass,in case any were hiding there. I treated again 2 days later using a double dose and using carbon after treating. My last treatment was a week after the first treatment, and again it was a double dose, or a little more, as I finished the flatworm exit bottle. I did a 50% water change the day after the final tank treatment and I also started carbon. I did take the pom pom crab out after the 1st treatment but I never caught the shrimp and I dont know if its alive. I havent returned the removed critters to the tank yet, but I see a few snails, hermits, and brittle stars that survived all three treatments (makes me wonder if some flatworms survived too). I will post in the coming weeks about whether I see any flatworms. I plan to use phyto and add tigerpods to boast the pod population, so I there are any surviving flatworms then I should know soon, since phyto makes their population explode. I plan to get a pair of seahorses in about 3 weeks, and a goby/pistol shrimp. IT WAS A HUGE PITA! It better of worked!!!