BREAKING NEWS! We Have Officially Eradicated AEFW's With A 100% Reef Safe IN TANK Treatment.

[TheHarold]

I don’t think it’s fair to call this snake oil. This is still the first product I’ve seen that kills AEFW in the tank. Even the people who are not having long term success are seeing their population eradicated or seriously knocked back.

Where this product has missed the mark is that it’s either not killing all or any of the eggs. When I used this as an initial beta tester I had a serious infestation in my 300G reef. This was over a year ago, my acros were pretty much goners and every single one recovered and looked amazing. It wasn’t until a year later I saw signs of AEFW making a comeback. I had not added a single coral so these had to be from the eggs. It took a year for them to bounce back enough to see the signs of dmg.

Now, let’s look at the positive:

it killed my population and allowed acros to all heal and recover, new growth and all.

it didn’t hurt anything in my tank, my first two doses were double doses and I feel this is a requirement.

combined with basting and good husbandry this is going give corals the best chance to recover esp if you have large colonies that are hard to remove or dip.

Now let’s talk negative:

Like coral dips we still can’t kill eggs. With so many unknowns about the cycle of these things this is why people are not seeing success. Even recently there was a study of AEFW (see mr saltwater tube) that showed hatch cycles all over the place due to so many variables like temp and other Params...

Any product that has hidden ingredients is going to be controversial and the natural no chemical purists will always have a valid argument. I believe this product kills worms with a double dose and the issue is that it’s very difficult to have that moment where all eggs have hatched and only worms exist in the tank.

I personally feel I was successful in round two when I combined four weeks of dbl doses and 6 months of double zeo flatworm stop. Flatworm stop to slowly reduce population by starving and eventually breaking the cycle and then purge during that to keep smashing the population of live worms. This was very expensive though, time will tell if it truly worked.

I feel they should keep selling based on my personal experiences. Even if my worms come back I look at this as a tool to use as 6 month cycle to diminish the harm these cause.

and I spent $300 to have it do absolutely nothing but brown our my corals. Soooo... yeah.

 

[2Wheelsonly]

and I spent $300 to have it do absolutely nothing but brown our my corals. Soooo... yeah.

Sorry bruh...

I shared my experiences which will be helpful; everyone's situation is different. With all due respect you were asking a lot of questions before you bought it. Sharing experiences allows people in the future to read and help them make decisions much like you did. The first thing you did (before your dose cycle was even done) was post showing that your eggs are still alive even those people like me were honest with feedback and posted detailed information showing our husbandry habits, parameters, tanks, equipment and weekly logs. IF you read these you would know that my personal experience showed these did NOT kill eggs and there you were posting a picture of an acro with eggs.

So when I share detailed information and some clown @Thomashtom with a fish only algae infested tank says rudely to stop, that's a no go. Just trying to help, if you read my post I could have saved you some cash. Again as I stated, I feel there is so much we don't know about AEFW and you didn't share anything on your tank. Do you have QT attached, do you trade a lot of frags with locals? Do you introduce corals often? Do you bring in rock/inverts? You also mention Flatworm stop isn't working either, I also experienced significant reduction in AEFW with this product and others on R2R have said that it completely cleared infestations over a 6+ month period. (search username JDA with keyword flatworm stop). Everyone's experience is different so telling people to not share them is rude, and low class.

 

[TheReefKeeper]

I don’t think it’s fair to call this snake oil. This is still the first product I’ve seen that kills AEFW in the tank. Even the people who are not having long term success are seeing their population eradicated or seriously knocked back.

Where this product has missed the mark is that it’s either not killing all or any of the eggs. When I used this as an initial beta tester I had a serious infestation in my 300G reef. This was over a year ago, my acros were pretty much goners and every single one recovered and looked amazing. It wasn’t until a year later I saw signs of AEFW making a comeback. I had not added a single coral so these had to be from the eggs. It took a year for them to bounce back enough to see the signs of dmg.

Now, let’s look at the positive:

it killed my population and allowed acros to all heal and recover, new growth and all.

it didn’t hurt anything in my tank, my first two doses were double doses and I feel this is a requirement.

combined with basting and good husbandry this is going give corals the best chance to recover esp if you have large colonies that are hard to remove or dip.

Now let’s talk negative:

Like coral dips we still can’t kill eggs. With so many unknowns about the cycle of these things this is why people are not seeing success. Even recently there was a study of AEFW (see mr saltwater tube) that showed hatch cycles all over the place due to so many variables like temp and other Params...

Any product that has hidden ingredients is going to be controversial and the natural no chemical purists will always have a valid argument. I believe this product kills worms with a double dose and the issue is that it’s very difficult to have that moment where all eggs have hatched and only worms exist in the tank.

I personally feel I was successful in round two when I combined four weeks of dbl doses and 6 months of double zeo flatworm stop. Flatworm stop to slowly reduce population by starving and eventually breaking the cycle and then purge during that to keep smashing the population of live worms. This was very expensive though, time will tell if it truly worked.

I feel they should keep selling based on my personal experiences. Even if my worms come back I look at this as a tool to use as 6 month cycle to diminish the harm these cause.

You dosed Flatworm stop, You double dosed, You did 2 rounds of a product that claims it works!

Not my words!
BREAKING NEWS! We Have Officially Eradicated AEFW's With A 100% Reef Safe IN TANK Treatment.

How isn’t it snake oil their are pages saying it doesn’t work 100% as the titles reads!

Again the headline title of the thread claims they have irraticated flatworms? May be change the name of the title and say we have a Big step in ridding flatworms with good reefing husbandry!

The tile as it’s called is snake oil fact!

I have 23 year of reefkeeping and good husbandry experience. I had hoped it worked and it did not I rid them like you over the course of the year did this help who knows but I’m clean 100% and this did not work it was my techniques. The title is misleading.

Would I recommend it as a step in Ridding them Nope I would not can be done without it.

 

[2Wheelsonly]

You dosed Flatworm stop, You double dosed, You did 2 rounds of a product that claims it works!

Not my words!
BREAKING NEWS! We Have Officially Eradicated AEFW's With A 100% Reef Safe IN TANK Treatment.

How isn’t snake oil their are pages saying it doesn’t work 100% as the titles reads!

Again the headline title of the thread claims they have irraticated flatworms? May be change the name of the title and say we have a Big step in ridding flatworms with good reefing husbandry!

The tile as it’s called is snake oil fact!

I am just sharing my experience man, I don't care or take any responsibility for how a product is marketed. You could 100% say over 80% of the products in our industry or poorly/deceptively marketed.

Snake oil would insinuate that this is just random fluid that does nothing. I absolutely saw my flatworms die, not so much the eggs but at the very least it gave my corals several months to repair and grow until the population started to gain steam. My ADVICE based on MY EXPERIENCES claim that for those of you with large colonies that DO NOT or CANNOT realistically dismantle every single coral and do multiple dips over 6 weeks then the BEST solution based on MY EXPERIENCES is to combine double dose of this and flatworm stop (6+ months dbl).

I would agree the title is misleading. I feel most coral dips are misleading too; they claim to eliminate pests and allow safe introduction of corals into your tank. They also do not kill eggs.

I agree with you on the title and marketing, I do not agree that it's "snake oil". This isn't my thread, so i'm not going to change the title. My role here is to share experiences because titles like this can be a bit miss-leading even if the product does work to some degree. I do give credit to UWC, they are still the only show in town that has killed these things safely in the display tank; I look at that as a step in the right direction. The realist in me knew from the get-go this title wasn't going to be the end result.

 

[ReefHomieJon]

AEFW??

 

[Malifry97]

AEFW??

Acropora Eating FlatWorm

 

[Reef Quest]

API MelaFix is something I've always used to dip corals, with great effect and even treat whitespot in full blown reef aquariums over the years again with great success compared to anything else available to date. I've always used the dosage as per what the bottle has stated for treatment in tank except for when dipping corals I've used 10ml per 1 litre of dipping water.

So I decided to try API MelaFix in the same format that Purge advised as a dosage regime prior to its availability here in the U.K.

All the American posts I could see were showing the same cloudy water effects from purge as when I had used MelaFix. Of course I'm not saying for one minute it's the same, just an observation.

It was used on an aquarium where AEFW had been around but never in enough numbers to cause serious issues, so I thought, but there was colour loss on some corals and slow tissue necrosis seen on a few too.
When I used the API MelaFix at the stated dosage on the bottle for an in tank treatment with Turkey basting, low and behold a huge amount of AEFW came off of the corals than was suspected.
Note the protein skimmer cup was removed and at times had to be stopped due to the over foaming production. I'd suggest good water surface movement and perhaps add an air pump to the main aquarium as the protein skimmer might have to be stopped.
Turkey basting all the corals shortly after each treatment of MelaFix was added is also essential I feel. Many of the wrass were eating them also as they were being blown off.
A few corals were able to be removed and inspected carefully where eggs were seen.

7 weeks after the first treatment, no AEFW and no eggs could be seen on the corals that could be removed, this doesn't mean they weren't there, just I didn't see any on the corals as before. No losses of any corals happened during this time at all. Any STN had stopped completely and signs of healing and regrowth of the corals tissue was also observed. All coral colours had dramatically improved and the skimmer cup was back on and activated carbon used to remove the MelaFix and small water changes undertaken also.

I hope other Reef Keepers take this as another in tank treatment option to consider for AEFW. I'm not endorsing this or giving any guarantee, just sharing my experience with using the API MelaFix for AEFW as an in tank treatment option.
I've also not used Purge at all so cannot I comment on it's effectiveness.
Happy Reefing

 

[jamesfc27]

API MelaFix is something I've always used to dip corals, with great effect and even treat whitespot in full blown reef aquariums over the years again with great success compared to anything else available to date. I've always used the dosage as per what the bottle has stated for treatment in tank except for when dipping corals I've used 10ml per 1 litre of dipping water.

So I decided to try API MelaFix in the same format that Purge advised as a dosage regime prior to its availability here in the U.K.

All the American posts I could see were showing the same cloudy water effects from purge as when I had used MelaFix. Of course I'm not saying for one minute it's the same, just an observation.

It was used on an aquarium where AEFW had been around but never in enough numbers to cause serious issues, so I thought, but there was colour loss on some corals and slow tissue necrosis seen on a few too.
When I used the API MelaFix at the stated dosage on the bottle for an in tank treatment with Turkey basting, low and behold a huge amount of AEFW came off of the corals than was suspected.
Note the protein skimmer cup was removed and at times had to be stopped due to the over foaming production. I'd suggest good water surface movement and perhaps add an air pump to the main aquarium as the protein skimmer might have to be stopped.
Turkey basting all the corals shortly after each treatment of MelaFix was added is also essential I feel. Many of the wrass were eating them also as they were being blown off.
A few corals were able to be removed and inspected carefully where eggs were seen.

7 weeks after the first treatment, no AEFW and no eggs could be seen on the corals that could be removed, this doesn't mean they weren't there, just I didn't see any on the corals as before. No losses of any corals happened during this time at all. Any STN had stopped completely and signs of healing and regrowth of the corals tissue was also observed. All coral colours had dramatically improved and the skimmer cup was back on and activated carbon used to remove the MelaFix and small water changes undertaken also.

I hope other Reef Keepers take this as another in tank treatment option to consider for AEFW. I'm not endorsing this or giving any guarantee, just sharing my experience with using the API MelaFix for AEFW as an in tank treatment option.
I've also not used Purge at all so cannot I comment on it's effectiveness.
Happy Reefing

I honestly didn't know you could put MelaFix directly in a reef tank. Very interesting...

 

[Skibum]

@UWC have you guys tested this product with aquariums that have nudibranchs, Specifically Berghia nudibranchs?

 

[bikedoctoRR]

@UWC. im in the uk and have just discovered some tiny (less than one mm) aefw in my tank. I have mainly stags acros and two millis. one of my millis has been attacked and a blue acro. my stags seams uneffected to be honest. ive never seen adults or eggs. im gonna hit the system with your product to go in hard whilst this is a small infestation and no adults can be seen. I think its only been since jan a frag went in as before that no corals added for very long time and no issues with corals.

are you still monitoring this thread and responding if fast advice needed. ??

I have read every page of this thread over the last 3 days and could see things when you do that. some of the pics of worms are clearly different so this maybe why some have lead to better results than others. one had a forked tail and others didn't etc. bottle issue was obvious once you asked for batch numbers etc. any way I attach my little critters I found for you to look at. ill post up my results as I go threw my course. its a 100gal tank. sumped. running on nsw. these were shot under 100x magnification.

 

[Reef Quest]

Are they not the dreaded black bugs?

 

[bikedoctoRR]

@UWC looking at Kate Rawlinson a data could temperature be the difference of this product working or not. If it seriously effects the worms viability of eggs and how many worms come from one batch and how long they take to develop to maturity and then there life span. could guys who run cooler tanks be seeing a failed course due to the worms reduced uptake of nutriants or you treatment from the water coloum or coral due to growing slower and needing less with that slower growth. Plus eggs take longer to hatch in cooler tanks so maybe if your getting adults laying within a few weeks of the treatment it’s quite possible to have eggs still after the period of treatment. ???

 

[DoctaReef]

So whats the verdict on using this product with Monti Eating Nudibranchs? Anyone have any success?

 

[bikedoctoRR]

Did I do it right. First dose 100 gal tank = 10 is oz. = 300 ml. My tank didn’t go all that cloudy and is nearly clear in two hours. I shock the bottle for at least 5 mins before and for loads when I got it off the delivery guys.
this was at full dose. Now it’s nearly clear 2 hrs latter

 

[badsmitty]

don't waste your $$$$ on this product, I tried it twice and it didn't work, basically I had to start over to get rid of the flatworms

 

[bikedoctoRR]

many as others will disagree with you. I got to try it before I smash my tank up that’s taken 5 years to build. It gonna be as effective as dipping. Mine are very young aefw. In fact you need a 60x lens to see them most of the time. No eggs ever seen. Only coral gone in my rank was Jan. Since then nothing’s gone in for years so I think I have caught it early on

 

[bikedoctoRR]

Day 6 nothing bad to report. No losses kh creeping up but just backing off doser to match

 

[bikedoctoRR]

Worms about 1mm in length got off corals on day 8 after second dose on day 7. Plus seeing tiny worms on the glass now that I never before. I’m hoping this is because there moving about to get away from treatment. Have them in a jar and theve survived 48 hrs in water that has purge in it.

 

[bikedoctoRR]

Day 10 coral shook in tank water. Not even a dip. Beginning to think the rumers are true and it don’t work. Given it is very small but I don’t expect seeing live worms half way threw treatment. I see @UWC is asking for worms as this product is being reformulated saying to me I’ve been openly sold a product they may fully well know that don’t work.

 

[bikedoctoRR]

Still not working . 2 days after 4th dose still getting 1mm worms off the corals using just tank water and a Baster