Hello, this is the predicament I am currently in:
I contracted Acropora Eating Flatworms in late 2022 and have been dipping three frag racks full of Acro frags and colonies for the past 7 weeks in Potassium Chloride.
I dipped in 1 TBS Food Grade KCl per gallon for 10 minutes each rack. The first week of dipping resulted in a large number of flatworms being killed. The second week I only seen a couple large flatworms, I haven’t noticed any other flatworms ever since but I continued dipping.
I was about to halt dipping since there all the bite marks have gone away and I haven’t been seeing any in the dips. However last week I noticed about 10 frags still had eggs on them. I also noticed eggs on frags that were not acropora. This led me to believe that the flatworms were surviving in the water column/ glass.
I now set up a temporary tank without fish or rock to hold all the acros and want to use a better method to ensure eradication. I don’t want any chance of the worms surviving on the glass or in the overflow or sump. This leads me with two options:
1. Run the temporary tank with elevated potassium levels for 6 weeks and then reintroduce.
2. Continue weekly dipping and hold the acros in the temporary tank. During each dip drain the entire tank and spray all surfaces with KCl solution. Reintroduce after 6 weeks.
Would option 1 be safe if the only inhabitants are acropora? I have over $10,000 in acros and don’t want to kill them all so I’d want to see what safe concentration people have tried and succeeded with?
Option 2 would leave room for error as I wouldn’t plan on draining the sump and overflow and spraying all equipment as that would be time consuming.
What is the best way to combat these AEFW?
I contracted Acropora Eating Flatworms in late 2022 and have been dipping three frag racks full of Acro frags and colonies for the past 7 weeks in Potassium Chloride.
I dipped in 1 TBS Food Grade KCl per gallon for 10 minutes each rack. The first week of dipping resulted in a large number of flatworms being killed. The second week I only seen a couple large flatworms, I haven’t noticed any other flatworms ever since but I continued dipping.
I was about to halt dipping since there all the bite marks have gone away and I haven’t been seeing any in the dips. However last week I noticed about 10 frags still had eggs on them. I also noticed eggs on frags that were not acropora. This led me to believe that the flatworms were surviving in the water column/ glass.
I now set up a temporary tank without fish or rock to hold all the acros and want to use a better method to ensure eradication. I don’t want any chance of the worms surviving on the glass or in the overflow or sump. This leads me with two options:
1. Run the temporary tank with elevated potassium levels for 6 weeks and then reintroduce.
2. Continue weekly dipping and hold the acros in the temporary tank. During each dip drain the entire tank and spray all surfaces with KCl solution. Reintroduce after 6 weeks.
Would option 1 be safe if the only inhabitants are acropora? I have over $10,000 in acros and don’t want to kill them all so I’d want to see what safe concentration people have tried and succeeded with?
Option 2 would leave room for error as I wouldn’t plan on draining the sump and overflow and spraying all equipment as that would be time consuming.
What is the best way to combat these AEFW?