AEFW, Flatworm Stop and Lifecycle Questions

[poomba]

Any update?

 

[jda]

Not from me... still no flatworms back in that tank. It is still a success.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

I have also treated a friends tank with fws and basted a lot almost daily. I It's been a long time, maybe 8 months if I had to guess with no signs of worms. If your treating, basting will speed up the whole process if done every other day or so. Amazing product imo.

I am intrigued to find some in a tank I can try and treat with wormwood powder to see if that's the active ingredient.

 

[BoomCorals]

I believe FWS also has iodine in it. I had been doing some testing in QT, and after using it in a QT tank for the past few months, sent in an ICP test, and my Iodine came back quite high. Considering I change the QT water using old tank water from my main system, which has a "normal" Iodine reading, the only difference would be the FWS. It was 170 ug/l to be exact.

 

[Graffiti Spot]

Also a qt tank probably wont use up iodine like a stocked reef tank will.

 

[BoomCorals]

Also a qt tank probably wont use up iodine like a stocked reef tank will.

But the QT tank has never had high iodine before. Wasn't a slow buildup either. I last tested QT about 2 months ago right before I started the FWS testing. Iodine was same level as main system.

 

[BigJohnny]

I believe FWS also has iodine in it. I had been doing some testing in QT, and after using it in a QT tank for the past few months, sent in an ICP test, and my Iodine came back quite high. Considering I change the QT water using old tank water from my main system, which has a "normal" Iodine reading, the only difference would be the FWS. It was 170 ug/l to be exact.

Hey @BoomCorals , that may be true however just fyi I've been using kz fws normal dose for 6+ months (as a health additive/preventative so cant comment on effectiveness against worms) and I actually have to dose iodine weekly to maintain nsw according to icp, so I dont think it has that much if it does.

Having said that, mine is on a 1 year old 90g reef and a 12g fuge always packed with fast growing chaeto so that may be offsetting it. I believe chaeto uses iodine but not sure. I haven't done a single water change in that time as well.

By any chance do you have elevated molybdenum in either system?

 

[BoomCorals]

Hey @BoomCorals , that may be true however just fyi I've been using kz fws normal dose for 6+ months (as a health additive/preventative so cant comment on effectiveness against worms) and I actually have to dose iodine weekly to maintain nsw according to icp, so I dont think it has that much if it does.

Having said that, mine is on a 1 year old 90g reef and a 12g fuge always packed with fast growing chaeto so that may be offsetting it. I believe chaeto uses iodine but not sure. I haven't done a single water change in that time as well.

By any chance do you have elevated molybdenum in either system?

I do not have elevated moly. I wonder if the chaeto is the difference. I’m running an ATS so no macro algae.

 

[jda]

I started treating my frag tank with a wormwood concoction. It tastes very similar to Flatworm Stop, but smells a bit different... FWS has something else in it. The acropora, clams, snails, lettuce nudibranch and urchin do not seem to notice at all (I do not have any fish), but I have no AEFW in this tank to see if it works on them or not. If anybody is battling these jerks and wants to give it a try, hollar and I can give you my recipe.

 

[BigJohnny]

I started treating my frag tank with a wormwood concoction. It tastes very similar to Flatworm Stop, but smells a bit different... FWS has something else in it. The acropora, clams, snails, lettuce nudibranch and urchin do not seem to notice at all (I do not have any fish), but I have no AEFW in this tank to see if it works on them or not. If anybody is battling these jerks and wants to give it a try, hollar and I can give you my recipe.

I cant believe you tasted kz flatworm stop lol

 

[jda]

It was for science.

 

[snakejacques]

I cant believe you tasted kz flatworm stop lol

I was thinking the same thing LOL

 

[BoomCorals]

It was for science.

Taking one for the team :D

 

[Highgrade]

I started treating my frag tank with a wormwood concoction. It tastes very similar to Flatworm Stop, but smells a bit different... FWS has something else in it. The acropora, clams, snails, lettuce nudibranch and urchin do not seem to notice at all (I do not have any fish), but I have no AEFW in this tank to see if it works on them or not. If anybody is battling these jerks and wants to give it a try, hollar and I can give you my recipe.

Wormwood... hmmmm maybe start dosing Absinthe. Its the new rage instead of Vodka. Just kidding. I use KZ FWS on a daily basis. Dosing 1-2 times a day. Doesn't seem to harm any of my tanks. As for AEFW they're still there in a couple of my tanks. Not a big infestation but manageable. The FWS does seem to slow down their munching. I did an experiment with a colony which I moved to a QT tank. I strictly been performing a dip every 3-5 days with no KZ FWS added to the tank. Seems the AEFW have an increased appetite for Acros like a beaver does for trees. Anyhow I'm going to give UWCs new AEFW magic potion a try. I'd love to see an in tank treatment that makes the AEFW just fall off.

 

[UABsleeper]

Following along! Great thread! I had aefw on my display about 5 months ago now.. I didn’t have a qt rank so I removed everything from the rockwork and placed on a frag rack.. (really only had about 7-8 frags/ small colonies..) I dipped everything in Bayer and scrubbed all the frag plugs every 3 days for ~1.5 months I believe I’m close to saying that I eradicated them from my tank.. several of the frags didn’t survive the dipped and died a couple months later.. I have dipped everything that didn’t make it and found no signs of aefw or eggs.. also all my acros are looking healthy and growing.. so I’m hopefull that I got them all

 

[jda]

I was over to see the ground-zero tank last week. Still not AEFW on any colony and everything is looking good, but he has not added any frags since last year. It is just a matter of time until he gets them... but at least we know what to do now.

 

[Dennis Cartier]

Taking one for the team :D

Ah, I think that should be "Tasting one for the team"! :)

Dennis

 

[Atu]

I just found this little jerks in my tank after dipping a sick looking acro in concentrated Coral RX.


Dead ******* after 15 minutes of Coral RX dip at 1.5x strength

@jda during the treatment, was activated carbon or any such media used? What about skimming (turn off? overflowing?)? Carbon dosing (maybe bacteria degrade de stuff)?

I'm inclining for this treatment, the infestation seems small for now but it's a 500 gallon system and I would prefer some tank-wide treatment.

Also, my system is infested, heavily infested, really freaking scary looking infested, with red flatworms. So i'm looking for a treatment that won't kill them and poison the tank. Any idea if this product would stop them reproducing as well?

Corner of tank with highest density of red flatworms. All the red you see at the height of the lower calaustrea and below are red flatworms. The rest of the system is not as bad as this corner.

 

[jda]

Skimmer stayed on and no carbon - the idea is that there is always some in the system. I have no idea how regular red planaria would respond.

 

[Atu]

Thanks for the answer.

I just looked up the price here (I'm from Argentina) and with the current inflation is really expensive... Did your wormwood concoction work?