AEFW Treatment Blog

[Outdrsyguy1]

So I have AEFW. I dipped all my frags and never saw any eggs or noticed AEFW in the dips yet somehow I now have them.

I'm starting this up to detail my treatment and ask for help from anyone who has pointers.

Bought a 15 gallon tank today and borrowed 4 bulb 24" t5 light from local reefer. My DT is 110 gallons and most of my acros are still frags (never grew much due to AEFW and nutrients being too low in the tank).

I plan on dipping everything once a week for 6+ weeks (need to research if it's 6 or 8). don't want to stay in the QT tank too long as it doesn't have the bells and whistles for stability that the DT has.

I plan on doing WC every other day (4 gallon) from my DT so the corals stay used to DT conditions. About 17 total acro frags.

Couple questions,
Do birdsnest corals host AEFW?
What about red digitata?
Stylophora? (purple stylo)

I don't plan on putting any fish/inverts in the QT so I'm not running a skimmer or filtration since it's basically a frag tank. I might drop a small piece of LR in there just to be safe.

Any pointers? suggestions?

[dowtish]

all corals you asked about are not Acropora. So they will not have any AEFW on them.

Your plan isnt too bad. What are you planning on dipping with?

[Outdrsyguy1]

Hi dowtish, my procedure is based on your account and battle with aefw. I'm also using bayer which I just started using about 2 months ago. Went through revive and coralrx and I think I like bayer best with revive being 2nd in line. I've killed corals by dipping them 10 minutes in revive but it also kills more pests than coralrx.

I dipped 2/3 of all acros tonight but decided to stop because it was getting late and my dip water was starting to get pretty cold. tomorrow night I start on the encrusted corals and finish the 1st round of dipping.

[Outdrsyguy1]

Only thing that irks me, is that i couldn't find any egg clusters anywhere. I've seen them before so I know what to look for and my eyes are decent but couldn't find anything anywhere :(

Corals seem okay so far, we'll see what tomorrow brings.

[dg3147]

So I have AEFW. I dipped all my frags and never saw any eggs or noticed AEFW in the dips yet somehow I now have them.

I'm starting this up to detail my treatment and ask for help from anyone who has pointers.

Bought a 15 gallon tank today and borrowed 4 bulb 24" t5 light from local reefer. My DT is 110 gallons and most of my acros are still frags (never grew much due to AEFW and nutrients being too low in the tank).

I plan on dipping everything once a week for 6+ weeks (need to research if it's 6 or 8). don't want to stay in the QT tank too long as it doesn't have the bells and whistles for stability that the DT has.

I plan on doing WC every other day (4 gallon) from my DT so the corals stay used to DT conditions. About 17 total acro frags.

Couple questions,
Do birdsnest corals host AEFW?
What about red digitata?
Stylophora? (purple stylo)

I don't plan on putting any fish/inverts in the QT so I'm not running a skimmer or filtration since it's basically a frag tank. I might drop a small piece of LR in there just to be safe.

Any pointers? suggestions?

Just getting to the end of my 8 week QT / acro tear down for the same reason (though, I had red bugs as well). Just be able to add 1/2 gallon per day for auto top off. Add a cheap digital thermometer and heater/fan as needed --15g can have large temp swings. Also add a power head or something for flow.

Biggest "problem" (though I don't know if it affected things at all) is maintaing alk ---but if u are doing daily water changes from DT it shouldnt be a problem. I didnt use DT water until this last week (i was paranoid about AEFW/red bugs swimming around in the water column....likely just my own paranoia though).

[Outdrsyguy1]

Yeah, I have a MJ900 in there with the power head attachment but I may put something smaller. It blows like crazy and things slide around a little. gonna work on that soon.
Finished all the corals tonight for dip session 1. Also scraped off acro encrusted in tank. I may put some epoxy over the spots to make sure nothing survives the cleansing.
I did decide to throw 1 rock from my sump into the tank to make sure I had some biological filtration. There might be some die off of critters and such on frag plugs.
Taking the chance that no aefw were in my sump. To get there they have to go through a 100 micron filter which I don't think they can do, atleast I hope not. I never have acro in the sump so no reason they'd be there.

I'm a little worried about the DT and floating aefw though as I said above I don't think they could make it through the filter. My corals are so beat down by Aefw that when I do large water changes they really freak out and throw out filiments and the spot doesn't heal for 5+ days. So I'm hoping using DT water will help keep them used to DT conditions.

We'll see how next weekends dipping goes. I did see some medium sized aefw in the dip, but most are so small that I can't tell if they are tiny aefw or specs or possibly other bugs. I guess if anything comes off next week they probably have to be aefw since everything went through a dip.

[UTCReefer]

Just keep going. All you need to do is break the cycle in your QT tank and at the same time starve out the ones hiding in your DT. If you didnt find any eggs on your frags then they either already hatched or were not on the frags but close by. Its important to wait long enough so that any eggs left behind in the DT have time to hatch and die before you put your corals back. I beat them earlier this year too. Now i dont add anything to my tank anymore. If i do then i will set up a QT tank first. But so far nothing has made me want to go through the hassle. Take your time and wait as long as possible, I waited a few months.

[Outdrsyguy1]

well treatment session 2 went a little better than the first one. I've noticed that the frags which were very pale are hanging on by a thread and some have started necrosing in areas, typically on the underside and edges.
I tested ammonia and nitrite to make sure my tank wasn't cycling (new 15 gallon) and both were 0. I did throw in a piece of live rock from my sump so don't expect a cycle.
Start: 17 frags
Losses: 1 Tenius

I'm thinking of adding a fish to my QT to keep some nutrients for the corals. They seem to be pale but it could be the light since they are used to led's and this is t5.

[dowtish]

I would add a chromis to the QT for sure.

[ifarmer]

red bug and aefw can be on any coral.

[Outdrsyguy1]

ifarmer, are you saying I should have taken all corals out of my tank? not just acro's? I have a few digi's, one birdsnest, 2 stylophora, 1 meteor shower, and 1 cyphastrea

[Constrictor6090]

ifarmer, are you saying I should have taken all corals out of my tank? not just acro's? I have a few digi's, one birdsnest, 2 stylophora, 1 meteor shower, and 1 cyphastrea

The Acro eating flatworms will not eat Montipora, stylopora, cyphastrea, or seriatopora species since they are not acropora species . Same with redbugs. I would treat the acros separately and let the rest starve in your tank