Winning the war against AEFW

Falc!

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Background: tank has been up going on 2 years. Acro dominant tank and flourishing. I was adding new frags from online vendors mostly. I was using Red Sea dip, revive and bayer on all frags before entering display.

Then one day I noticed a newer frag, ASD Mille went from looking super polymer out and getting colorful tips and starting to encrust take a sharp turn to the ugly side. I didn’t know what to do so I left it and figured I’ll give it a few days since all parameters had been stable for months and everything had been going great… things got worst and one day during water change a power head that I use to blow rocks off during water change hit the milli and worms flew everywhere!

I grabbed my Turkey baster and and a couple more came off along with some of the corals flesh. I started to blast other corals and found more worms in or their milles and on various other corals.

After doing a lot of research, I through in several different wrasse including yellow corris melaranus 6 line and eventually a ruby red since my lil daughter said she was so pretty. I used Turkey baster to blast corals every other day and all wrasse and especially the ruby red would go crazy eating them. The corals reacted by not dying but did lose color and lots of polyp extension.

Then came the chemicals, “Purge” was the first treatment since I couldn’t get all corals out to dip because they were all encrusted on rocks, only a few I could take out but very few. After 2 bottles of purge, I still had worms every time I used Turkey baster.

AEFW X was next treatment, was worst one since I found even more worms every time I Turkey basted

Flatworm Stop was the next, and this with the Turkey baster seemed to lower the amount of worms and even went a couple days without any worms basted. 7 months later and every time I thought it was getting better, I would find More worms!

Getting ready to quit and days in of research, all I found were dips and dips but I couldn’t take all out of tank. But then I came across a treatment that I had overlooked because it required draining most of the water and I only found like 1 video and not much on web itself about the process.

Reaching the 1 year mark I decided to try it as last resort. So from what I gathered and what I did was drain the display down to a couple inches so fish can stay in water and in a spray bottle mixed 10 grams of potassion P from Brightwell. I turn lights very low. I sprayed all the coral with the potassion p and let it sit for 18 mins and then filled the tank back up and went ahead and did a 20% water change. To help slime up the coral and clean it off better I ran the return a bit dry and blasted bubbles for like 10 min. There was slime everywhere and there were DEAD WORMS FLOATING AROUND TOO, I pulled a couple out and verified dead dead.….

Two days later I Turkey basted and 0 worms and have continued the treatment every Friday for 3 weeks and I will do a 4th treatment this Friday and to this day even on treatment days, 0 worms. I don’t know if I will continue past a 4th week of treatment but I might do till 5th because I never want to go through this again. I also don’t want to declare victory just yet but as of 3 weeks ago, I am winning

FYI Video says like 15-20min treatment if I recall correctly and I also used a higher dose of 10g per liter vs the video recommendation of 2g. I think they called it the Bill Morgan treatment. Anyways I thought I’d share my experience and I’ll post pics on Friday when I do the 4th treatment
 
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Falc!

Falc!

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Just a quick follow up, I did the 4th treatment and still no aefw.! Sorry no pics, time was running against me that day and been very busy.

It’s a week after my 4th and I Turkey basted everything and all I ended up with are upset wrasses following the baster around, I did notice a lot more coloring up and lots of growth tips on at least 80% of the acros so that is a great sign for me. I’ll try to keep updating weekly and report my findings
 
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Falc!

Falc!

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Been very busy and no comments so I’ll make one last posting and let it be…. 7-8 weeks after last treatment and I Turkey basted everything last night and still no Worms! So I’m gonna go ahead and call the war won . Most of my sticks are encrusting/coloring up/ and growth tips are popping up everywhere again so I’m happy and hope this helps someone that has struggled with them pesky worms
 

Reefer Matt

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Been very busy and no comments so I’ll make one last posting and let it be…. 7-8 weeks after last treatment and I Turkey basted everything last night and still no Worms! So I’m gonna go ahead and call the war won . Most of my sticks are encrusting/coloring up/ and growth tips are popping up everywhere again so I’m happy and hope this helps someone that has struggled with them pesky worms
Thanks for sharing! :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:
I'm sure someone will have similar success because of this post.
 

Kactai

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This is awesome! How did your CUC do with this treatment? I know it’s a while behind you but hopefully you can shed some light. Very encouraging stuff
 

Gregg @ ADP

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This is one of the reasons that one of the first fish I put into any tank I do is a melanarus wrasse. First off, they’re beautiful, hardy fish that pretty much just keep to themselves. Secondly, if they’re in there and established before you start adding corals, they will quickly sniff out anything that comes in and deal with it before you can have a big increase in population of worms.
 
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Falc!

Falc!

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This is awesome! How did your CUC do with this treatment? I know it’s a while behind you but hopefully you can shed some light. Very encouraging stuff
Cuc was not effected, but I did knock all snail and crabs I found just in case…. The only thing that was obliterated was my pod population, but I added a bottle a week after my last treatment and have been solid since. I did have a melaranus and a yellow corris wrasse in tank prior to outbreak and I’m sure they helped but not enough
 
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Falc!

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40B55B05-4300-49EB-9AE9-FD6B363ED942.jpeg
5232D021-EE4F-4039-8BE0-CB083A2256F2.jpeg


Here is my tank today, will turn 2 years old next month
 

MrPike

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Nice looking tank, thanks for posting your experience. Haven’t fought aefw for about 10 years now due to strict qt, but if one gets through going to try this method.

Curious how the wrasses are doing in a sandless setup? I avoid sand always in my tanks, but I have been wary of the sand sleeping wrasses.
 
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Falc!

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Nice looking tank, thanks for posting your experience. Haven’t fought aefw for about 10 years now due to strict qt, but if one gets through going to try this method.

Curious how the wrasses are doing in a sandless setup? I avoid sand always in my tanks, but I have been wary of the sand sleeping wrasses.
I used to have sand that’s why I had the 2 sand dwelling wrasses, took me weeks to find where they sleep but one night with a tiny flash light and I found them in caves under the rocks between the bottom glass. Been like 9 months now and they are very fat and happy and notice no difference in their way of being so I’m ok with it, one note I will add is that I got the wrasses when they were very tiny, don’t know if it makes a difference but it might
 
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Falc!

Falc!

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Update…..many months later, still no AEFW! I’ve been using the spray on new frags and as a dip and have seen all kinds of pods/bristles and other stuff fall of and die almost instantly. So I will continue to use this potassium

I also helped out a friend that had AEFW through the process and he has been very happy with the results too
 

strich

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Cool thread and thanks for following up. It's important to keep this data moving around.
I don't suppose you could dig up that video you used?
 
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Falc!

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This kills the eggs too?
Doesn’t kill the eggs which is why need to do it weekly… I did several weeks just to be sure but didn’t see anymore since first application, my friend saw 1-2 dead ones floating after 2nd application but no more after 3rd… but I do suggest 6-7 treatments just to be sure
 

LARedstickreefer

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No wonder I had some Potassium Chloride included in a frag shipment long ago? I’ve never had AEFW, but this seems like the way to go.
 
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Falc!

Falc!

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@Falc! what’s your acro quarantine process like for new frags? just went through a 2+ month dipping ordeal to eradicate AEFW and super hesitant to add any more acros.
I remove the frags from the original plugs, no matter how encrusted it is and then I give them a bath in the potassium. And of course inspect the frags really well. I use a flashlight and a white background to look at what came off the frags just to make sure they solid
 

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I remove the frags from the original plugs, no matter how encrusted it is and then I give them a bath in the potassium. And of course inspect the frags really well. I use a flashlight and a white background to look at what came off the frags just to make sure they solid
Thanks. One dip is enough assuming no exposed skeleton remaining after cutting?
 

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