AEFW battle/tank transfer - tips needed

[Smite]

AEFW has been nagging my tank for the last few months. During a heat wave my tank had a temp swing, I believe weakened my sps health and now the flatworms are a REAL problem.

I've kept 4 marine pure blocks in my tank since day one, used as a skimmer stand in my sump. I've purchased a 4x2x8 frag tank. I'm looking for input on the best way to do this. What dip to use (i love bayers but cant see what falls off), duration of treatment and also what all I really need to dip.


My basic plan of attack so far:

-Set up frag tank with matched parameters to my display (done)

- Made enough water for another 100% W/C for emergencies

-Remove sps from rocks above base to hopefully avoid eggs transfering, dip in bayers (unless there is something better) and place in frag tank on frag "plates".

- From what I've read dipping @ 5 day intervals is best but I would really like confirmation/opinions as well as recommendations for a dip thats clear

- Lastly, have some acro crabs that I really like. They've protected their colonies well with those pieces seeming unaffected by the AEFW. Curious, do I need to dip sps such as birdsnest or digitata? I have colonies of these I plan to dip initially but not sure if AEFW actually eat these. I'd like to dip everything then give the acro crabs a place to live without having to dig them out every 5 days. So if aefw does not prey on birdsnest it would be great to place them there in my larger colony.

I'm moving all my coral & fish since we've been talking about going with new flooring. I figure as long as I'm tearing into the tank I may as well break it down completely and get my floors redone so I don't have to go through this again down the road. (and hopefully find a deal on a 150+ system in the mean time )

Open to tips, experiences battling AEFW and with tank transfers. Any tips are greatly appreciated! I'll document with some pictures as I move forward, succeed or fail.

 

[Diesel]

Yep dipping every 5 days to break the cycle for 5/6 weeks.
If you break down your tank you need to setup a temporally QT/holding tank for all fish and inverts.
Nuke all rock no matter what and have it cured for 3 weeks or longer.
Don’t rush it, take your time.
From now on cause you have a frag tank quarantine every coral, period.

 

[Smite]

Yep dipping every 5 days to break the cycle for 5/6 weeks.
If you break down your tank you need to setup a temporally QT/holding tank for all fish and inverts.
Nuke all rock no matter what and have it cured for 3 weeks or longer.
Don’t rush it, take your time.
From now on cause you have a frag tank quarantine every coral, period.

Thanks for confirming the dipping regimen Diesel. Got a dip recommendation?

I was planning on keeping all fish/inverts in the frag tank. I have a QT system from learning the hard way there as well but only 1 chiller. This setup is in my garage in Socal and its still hitting 90+ in there. Do you feel pulling the coral every 5 days will cause too much stress or is there another reason for the separate system?

Having coral/invert QT will definitely be one of the perks of having this system running, just wishing I did it in the first place.

 

[Diesel]

Reason of why you don’t want coral togetherwuthfish and inverts is that you dipping your corals with bayer.
You got to rinse after dipping at least a few time before you put the corals back into the fragtank and yet always a little bayer will be ending up in your fragtank which is deadly to inverts and can damage the nervsystem from your fish.

 

[hatfielj]

Thanks for confirming the dipping regimen Diesel. Got a dip recommendation?

I was planning on keeping all fish/inverts in the frag tank. I have a QT system from learning the hard way there as well but only 1 chiller. This setup is in my garage in Socal and its still hitting 90+ in there. Do you feel pulling the coral every 5 days will cause too much stress or is there another reason for the separate system?

Having coral/invert QT will definitely be one of the perks of having this system running, just wishing I did it in the first place.

For just AEFW you don't have to use Bayer. In fact, I'd recommend against it due to how toxic it is to humans and other creatures. I've been using Polyp Lab's Reef Primer. It works very well and is completely non-toxic. Plus it's clear, so you can actually see the corals and the worms coming off. It actually kills the worms within a minute or two. I've been dipping weekly for the last 3 weeks and I haven't seen a worm since the first dipping day. The only down side is it's a bit pricey and you have to measure it out and mix it up. But, in my opinion, far better than dealing with a toxic pesticide in your home.

 

[Diesel]

Bayer might be toxic but by far cheaper on the long run.
When done just dump it along your foundation of your home as it will kills the termites, an other positive point.

But either way everybody knows you got to dip your corals not just once but put them on a dipping schedule as eggs will hatch.

 

[DLuce510]

Just went through this and so far came out successful. I kept all my acros tapped into the same system on my frag tank, havnt found it nessesary to setup QT. I dipped with Coral Rx every 5 days and it worked great! The flat worm fly right off and its not nearly as toxic to crustaceans. Digi's and brid nest do not need to be dipped. Acro crabs will have a hard time with the dips but its not impossible.
Tear down the system if you feel its the right thing to do but that's going to add another level of stress and it will probably take 6 months to a year for your system to settle back in and to see good growth rates and color. Check out my tank thread, I have pictures on how I did it.

 

[Smite]

So if I were to run Coral Rx in place of bayer, would 2 systems still be necessary? If after rinsing will the small amount of Rx have ill effects on other livestock? This frag tank is about 40g, so not very large.

My main concern is when I ran QT on all my fish it was a full QT with copper. This is my other tank I can house fish in but I'm worried about trying to keep inverts in there even after a vinegar bath and scrubbing. Most importantly my rainbow anemone that hosts my clowns. I do have several forms of copperzorb type products I can run and a strong planted tank light that I think will support the nem. Should I set it up, run copper absorbing media and test for copper? Or is that too risky?


I do plan to break down completely to install wood-like floors throughout the house. I figure as long as I'm playing with the more sensitive coral I may as well tackle both tasks at once.

 

[jda]

You can treat them in the tank with great success. I would highly recommend this. Get a larger bottle of ZeoVit Flatworm stop and do a double dose every day for a few months. You should see results in a few weeks, but it takes longer to fully eradicate them. It works.

You can also make your own solution out of Wormwood.

If you do decide to dip, I would not dip corals routinely in anything but Bayer. Bayer is so much less harsh on corals than CoralRx or Revive - I have not tried too many more than this.

The copper is gone - do not sweat this... just a little bit of aragonite or even a skimmer will get anything that you missed (which is unlikely). For copper to be effective, it needs continuously dosed.

 

[Smite]

You can treat them in the tank with great success. I would highly recommend this. Get a larger bottle of ZeoVit Flatworm stop and do a double dose every day for a few months. You should see results in a few weeks, but it takes longer to fully eradicate them. It works.

You can also make your own solution out of Wormwood.

If you do decide to dip, I would not dip corals routinely in anything but Bayer. Bayer is so much less harsh on corals than CoralRx or Revive - I have not tried too many more than this.

The copper is gone - do not sweat this... just a little bit of aragonite or even a skimmer will get anything that you missed (which is unlikely). For copper to be effective, it needs continuously dosed.

Thank you Jda. I've been dosing zeovit flatworm stop for some time now at just over the recommended dose. It seemed to help at first but since coral got stressed with this heatwave they seem to kicked back into gear. Not sure if its related or coincidental. I'll start upping the dosage until I do the swap to hopefully help the stressed hold on.

Good to know I can use the second system as well. I'll run a copper absorbing media just for piece of mind

 

[jda]

It takes a while. It will not kill them, but rather seems to interrupt their life cycle. It took about four to five months for all of them to leave. It seems like the large adults just died of old age while being childless. Do not give up. It works, but it takes time.

Are you still seeing new eggs?

I would not move them until they are healed up a bit. If you have to, then you have to... but probably not ideal.

 

[Smite]

It was a long day with a few set backs on monday during the swap but overall it seems to be success so far. Most my sps retained some color and I havent lost a single piece as of today. My doser failed while i was out of town over teh weekend. This let my display drop from an alk of 8.3 to 6.8. I realized this while acclimating the coral to my frag tank that I had previously set up to 8.3. An airstone combined with a warmer day and 50g of fresh mixed saltwater saved my ****. I let the coral drip for about 4 hours focusing on my alk levels. Once they matched I drained half the tub and "dripped" with a 1/2 hose, repeated teh process until the temperatures matched. Then added the coral to the tank.

In case it helps someone else in the same situation, this is how I went about the transfer and initial dip.
Basic rundown on whole process:
Filled large rubbermaid tub with display water. One that could fit all my sps. Also filled 2 medium rubbermaids.
Added bayers to one medium rubbermaid until water was very cloudy.
Removed sps from rock, removed base of coral and any dead areas
Removed sps went in bayers dip for about 8 minutes
Then rinsed in second medium tub
Then in large holding tub with airstone. I also had my ambient room temp higher than usual around 75 to help with temp.
Then dripped to frag tank until alk and temp were matched, airstone still running.
As I added pieces I would super glue them to frag plugs making sure to cover all cuts and any dead spots I found and overlapping live flesh.
Visually inspected knooks and crannies for eggs under a bright light
Once clean I added that piece to the tank.

I've read of flatworms just being stunned from some with dips. enough to fall off but then slowly starting to move. So i swapped out my bayer dip, making fresh batches several times as I emptied my display.
Once the first coral was added to bayer I set a timer for 8 minutes and worked as quickly as I could to add as many pieces of sps to the dip in that time. From there I'd take my time rinsing, swooshing and basting each piece to remove any hangers. I did this to each coral individually in the dip to try and keep moving while giving each piece about 8 minutes. Seemed to work out. After the last piece in that group I dump the bayer and rinse around the paremeter of my house and mixed a new batch with display water. I repeated this until all the corals were out of the tank.

It made for a long and exhausting/stressful day but all my hard work seems to have paid off so far with no losses as of yet. Polyps are out, the frag tank lets me easily inspect these pieces and I'm happy I removed them.

Going forward I plan to dip as close to 5 day intervals as possible. So I'll be doing 5 day water changes with alk/temp matched, possibly nitrates too not sure on that yet. I'm also double dosing flatworm stop as I've read some found it stops the reproductive cycle of AEFW. Daily basting and super high flow should help me determine how i did on the dip. I scored some HEAVY frag plates from TGC today so I'll be cranking the flow now. Hopefully all this'll shorten the time it takes me to beat AFEW. I'll update as I go with mistakes and successes.

Some pictures of the corals today, 3 days in looking good with polyp extension like I haven't seen in a while.
SSC
DSC_0008 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
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TGC millepora
DSC_0010 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
TGC acro of some kind
DSC_0011 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
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Crazy millepora I got from Eve
DSC_0012 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
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WD,TGC Serendipity,Vivid 4 Loco, Vivid Orange Crush, Orange Passion, Nice tenuis from Fly5150, cool stag from Eve
DSC_0013 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
Vivids Glowstick (second guessing that name)
DSC_0014 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
Millepora
DSC_0015 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
Joe The Coral
DSC_0017 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
Tort
DSC_0018 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
Pink Lemonade
DSC_0021 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
DSC_0022 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
ASD Doomsday
DSC_0025 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
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Cool acro/stag? From Eve
DSC_0026 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
Side ****
DSC_0031 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
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Sunny D
DSC_0016 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
Jedi Mind Trick
TGCM closeup by matthew schueneman, on Flickr


Happy campers. hopefully this nem holds strong under the finnex planted light its under. Just dont want to have it in the frag tank with all the bayers dips.
DSC_0035 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr

 

[Smite]

It takes a while. It will not kill them, but rather seems to interrupt their life cycle. It took about four to five months for all of them to leave. It seems like the large adults just died of old age while being childless. Do not give up. It works, but it takes time.

Are you still seeing new eggs?

I would not move them until they are healed up a bit. If you have to, then you have to... but probably not ideal.

I did find quite a few eggs on pieces placed on frag plugs when I did the transfer. I was never 100% on my total water volume with that tank though, this one I know is close to 35 gallons and I'll be continuing to dose flatworm stop as I treat these corals in the frag tank.

Thanks all for your help so far!