SeansNanoReef
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Could I use revive dip instead of coral rx? I’m thinking about getting more thin branching acros.
AEFW - My long journey
- Thread starter ronnie
- Start date
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Could I use revive dip instead of coral rx? I’m thinking about getting more thin branching acros.
sam.veilleux30
Well-Known Member
Try melafix 10 ml/l.
I managed to eradicate aefw from my tank with this and haven't lost a single frag in the process (1 dip/week for 6 weeks).
Never tried bayer for my part but i did lost some frags with revive (maybe too much product).
Chip
Community Member
Man AEFW is the worst thing you could have in a SPS tank. I did bet them. I had a 220 gallon tank at the time. I did not like lugol's iodine or revive. They both turned the acro brown and it made him freak out and possibly fall off but I don't think it kills them. Bayer is what worked. I pulled every acropora out of the main tank and dipped it in Bayer and put it in separate fiberglass tubs for 6 weeks. Dipping every coral for 15 minutes. and giving them a rinse for 15 minutes before putting them back into the tubs. it took a better part of 9 hours every Saturday for 6 weeks. ideally you want to starve your main tank with no and treat all your coral in a quarantine tank. you need to do it for at least six weeks because there's eggs in there they need to be born and die.
sam.veilleux30
Well-Known Member
Yeah, this is one nasty bug to get rid of. A lot of work.
Chip
Community Member
I dipped once every week for six weeks with no acropora in main tank. Starving main with the acropora eating flatworms with a lack of no acropora to eat. I pulled all acropora and quarantined them in fiberglass tubs that i got from tractor supplies. Dip them every Saturday for 15 minutes in a cloudy milk looking solution of Bayer. Didn't put a set amount into the bucket because the volume of water changed every time. Cloudy white. Till where you can't see where you put the acropora in the bucket. Fun sruff. And then rinsed for 15 minutes while maintaining the temperature. Large colonies I dip the whole Rock. Did it mostly in 5 gallon buckets with heaters in it. Heaters tended to overheat in a small bucket so watch your temperatures. Also if you have many acropora in your tubs. Watch your alkalinity and calcium will drop fast in multiple tubs. It was hard to maintain alkalinity in so many containers every day. Best of luck. They can be beaten. It is a true test to this . Hobby. Just make sure that they are the true acropora eating flatworms and not the red flatworms. Those maybe cured by using flatworm exit. I tried 6 times the recommended dose on AEFW and does nothing.
Chip
Community Member
They would plug up my pumps every time I dipped.
Figured I would post a safe hobbiest tested in tank treatment for aefw here since we have been getting good results. It can be done with wormwood or flatworm stop from kz. A few people have had trouble finding this info so I figured I would post it here since this is a sticky.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/wormwood-treatment-for-aefw.429422/page-7#post-7088407
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/wormwood-treatment-for-aefw.429422/page-7#post-7088407
I am a believer in wormwood. It is not a quick fix but I havent seen a worm in my system for almost 2 months. I needed to double the dosage from what is listed in the linked thread. I wouldnt hesitate to recommend trying this treatment.
Picasso the Triggerfish
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Maybe a halichoeres wrasse will help if your tank is big enough to maintain one
Good news! Thanks for updating us.
Oscar Bravo
Active Member
Well I think I have that problem now. I lost two of my wrasse a while back and sure that worm is taking over. I have a six line wrasse but I think he can’t do all the work. However I never get to see any flat worms on my sps.
It’s easier to identify them by the damage on corals but it does look like it to me. Although some of the polyclad flatworms that eat snails can look very very similar when small. A closer picture of the worm might help but if it was on an acropora odds are high it’s an aefw. The small split at the tail doesn’t seem right but I remember them making some odd shapes while wiggling around on a bucket.
lubeck
Valuable Member
I don’t know how to post a video but when it was swimming it was pretty quick and still had the split at the tail. It wasn’t on the acros. It was on the glass.
I did lose some acros but they all looked to stn.
AlexandraDreadlocksPanda
Active Member
I disagree. They’re child’s play to treat compared to Monti eating Nudi’s.
Ashish Patel
2500 Club Member
I have heard that, thats why I dont add any more Montis to my tank beside the 8 I have. I heard black bugs are the worst and fear them.
Ashish Patel
2500 Club Member
I never shared this story because i thought it was absurd but in 2017 i setup my SPS dominant 115 gallon tank. Since I was just trying to make sure I could keep acros alive I was not as careful about adding frags that had pest. I was for sure mindful but thought I would kill them because of water quality before anything else. Anyways, one weekend we went to Montreal and I went to a LFS that had the coolest looking acro colonies (4" or so) They did not look wild but looking back they for sure where. Everything in the system looked clean so figured i would be good. wrong.
Anyways, I smuggled some corals back into the states, dipped with Coral RX or Revive, cant remember which one and put it on my rockwork (5" away from my tri color valida). I never glued it down just placed it on the rockwork. After 2-3 months I noticed it was not vibrant Yellow. Fearing it was soon RTN or die I fragged it into 5 or so smaller frags and had a few on the sandbed, few on my magnetic frag rack. After a week or so when i observed the frag on the glass rack I noticed clear bite marks - removed the frag and sure enough it had eggs and when i dipped it in freshwater sure enough large Flatworm came of. I removed all the frags in the system from that one colony and decided to just see if they had spread to the other frags in the system.
After my experience I realized AEFW are easy to spot within 2 weeks of the corals being purchased. You can dip a new frag all you want but the bite marks wont show up for 1-2 weeks afterwards.
Lessons to Live by
1. Even if you do NOT have a QT tank, you can catch them on the frag rack withing 7-10 days. If you keep dipping you wont see them. If you see them early in their growth cycle I am 100% confident they will not spread. You just have to trash the frag and consider it a loss.
2. After having a AEFW infected colony on my rockwork (not glued) for 4 months, the pest never spread to the surround acros. They did not mature enough to spread.
3. Once they spread to surround areas you have an outbreak and need to make a decision, live with them or QT them outside of the tank.
4. Dont be a rush to Glue your corals to the rock. Acclimate them and monitor them on the glass frag rack.
5. If the coral has a pest, it will not be evident from day 1, even with dip, the acro frag i had no signs of pest in a dip before, and week later had bite marks.
6. AEFW have evolved with the Acropora species. They have evolved to look like them and feel comfortable only living their short lives on the acropora. AEFW branching out to surround LR is very risky so its good to keep good distant between your frags.
7. QT is best practice but if your not going to setup a QT that can keep SPS alive and well for 2-3 months then your better of buying from a trusted source. I know new hobbyist wont want to do this but cutting of the base with a Dremel or bandsaw is so effective. By doing this you decrease the eggs, which can be hidden from site near the base. If an acro comes back from this they are usually healthy and clean.
8. Only purchase FRAGS. Save the colonies for Aquaculture which tend to cut the frag down to 10 pieces with the assumption only 1-2 will survive.
9. I was able to catch the AEFW because of sites like R2R. If I had not done my research on signs of AEFW I would have not known to trash that corals. I purposely left all my unaffected acros in the tank to observe for few months (without dipping or overreacting) and never seen AEFW in my systems to this date. Months later my tank became a healthy PEST free SPS dominant reef. I looked back and wonder how the hell did they not spread after a 4" Acro Colonie was in my system 4-5 months.
Anyways, I smuggled some corals back into the states, dipped with Coral RX or Revive, cant remember which one and put it on my rockwork (5" away from my tri color valida). I never glued it down just placed it on the rockwork. After 2-3 months I noticed it was not vibrant Yellow. Fearing it was soon RTN or die I fragged it into 5 or so smaller frags and had a few on the sandbed, few on my magnetic frag rack. After a week or so when i observed the frag on the glass rack I noticed clear bite marks - removed the frag and sure enough it had eggs and when i dipped it in freshwater sure enough large Flatworm came of. I removed all the frags in the system from that one colony and decided to just see if they had spread to the other frags in the system.
After my experience I realized AEFW are easy to spot within 2 weeks of the corals being purchased. You can dip a new frag all you want but the bite marks wont show up for 1-2 weeks afterwards.
Lessons to Live by
1. Even if you do NOT have a QT tank, you can catch them on the frag rack withing 7-10 days. If you keep dipping you wont see them. If you see them early in their growth cycle I am 100% confident they will not spread. You just have to trash the frag and consider it a loss.
2. After having a AEFW infected colony on my rockwork (not glued) for 4 months, the pest never spread to the surround acros. They did not mature enough to spread.
3. Once they spread to surround areas you have an outbreak and need to make a decision, live with them or QT them outside of the tank.
4. Dont be a rush to Glue your corals to the rock. Acclimate them and monitor them on the glass frag rack.
5. If the coral has a pest, it will not be evident from day 1, even with dip, the acro frag i had no signs of pest in a dip before, and week later had bite marks.
6. AEFW have evolved with the Acropora species. They have evolved to look like them and feel comfortable only living their short lives on the acropora. AEFW branching out to surround LR is very risky so its good to keep good distant between your frags.
7. QT is best practice but if your not going to setup a QT that can keep SPS alive and well for 2-3 months then your better of buying from a trusted source. I know new hobbyist wont want to do this but cutting of the base with a Dremel or bandsaw is so effective. By doing this you decrease the eggs, which can be hidden from site near the base. If an acro comes back from this they are usually healthy and clean.
8. Only purchase FRAGS. Save the colonies for Aquaculture which tend to cut the frag down to 10 pieces with the assumption only 1-2 will survive.
9. I was able to catch the AEFW because of sites like R2R. If I had not done my research on signs of AEFW I would have not known to trash that corals. I purposely left all my unaffected acros in the tank to observe for few months (without dipping or overreacting) and never seen AEFW in my systems to this date. Months later my tank became a healthy PEST free SPS dominant reef. I looked back and wonder how the hell did they not spread after a 4" Acro Colonie was in my system 4-5 months.
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