Miami‘s Clam and SPS Tank

[Slocke]

Yes, I do have a plan to manage it.

 

[chipchipbro]

Flatworm Stop from Kz would be a good start!
Not gonna kill em, but will make your acros and other corals stronger against them.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

I battled aefw a few years back. The 2 popular approaches were up the wrasse population, or remove all acros from the tank and put them in a separate frag tank and allow the main tank to go 6 weeks without any acros.

I chose the latter. I borrowed a low boy tank, removed all my colonies and started a potassium chloride dip every 6 days for 6 weeks.

After 6 weeks, all the acros were places back in the tank and I'm happy to say that 2+ years later, there are zero signs of the pests.

 

[Slocke]

I battled aefw a few years back. The 2 popular approaches were up the wrasse population, or remove all acros from the tank and put them in a separate frag tank and allow the main tank to go 6 weeks without any acros.

I chose the latter. I borrowed a low boy tank, removed all my colonies and started a potassium chloride dip every 6 days for 6 weeks.

After 6 weeks, all the acros were places back in the tank and I'm happy to say that 2+ years later, there are zero signs of the pests.

I chose the former and I don’t even have AEFW

 

[Miami Reef]

I battled aefw a few years back. The 2 popular approaches were up the wrasse population, or remove all acros from the tank and put them in a separate frag tank and allow the main tank to go 6 weeks without any acros.

I chose the latter. I borrowed a low boy tank, removed all my colonies and started a potassium chloride dip every 6 days for 6 weeks.

After 6 weeks, all the acros were places back in the tank and I'm happy to say that 2+ years later, there are zero signs of the pests.

Hi Jimmy!

This AEFW problem is larger than I expected. I turkey basted, and a **** ton of these flatworms flew everywhere. I brought out the big guns (powerhead), and just power blasted the heck out of all the acropora.

The tank was snowing flatworms. The reason I haven’t updated this thread is 1-2 months was because I was so lost. Sent multiple ICPs. Tested nutrients and alk multiple times a week. Just trying to find out why my corals were paling and looking disgusting.


Blasting the corals was not effective (just did it now). I’ve seen a few flatworms already latch back onto the coral. The fish don’t really like flatworms either. They’ll eat some.


My issue is that a lot of my acropora have encrusted on the rock. If I remove the “colonies,” there will still be corals attached to the rock for the flatworms to complete their lifecycle.


Ps, basting the corals was not part of my “masterplan.”


I was considering draining the tank 1x/week and misting a 2g/L solution of tank water + KCl on all the acroporas. I saw this guy do it, and he had a great tank with clams. I am leaning toward this as my solution.

Bill Morgan’s method:

 

[Miami Reef]

I just got this response from @thatmanMIKEson

hey buddy sorry that happened, at least you know it's a pest and not a water quality issue or something your doing without knowing ( I like to find a positive) now you can work on dealing with it.

I seen on your build you were thinking about dosing up potassium, or treating the entire tank. I've had AEFW in a tank similar age to yours with the acropora in similar age and size, with that said I wouldn't try to treat the entire tank, and risk all the healthy BEAUTIFUL corals you have to try and save those acros, if they were giant thriving colonies that may be different but I would cut my losses and remove all the acropora for 6 months, any tissue that's encrusted to the rock you can't get, glue over that and starve out the FW's.

as far as adding fish to take care of them, that could work but sometimes the fish can be a pest too, and that doesn’t help the eggs, the quickest most natural way is to just remove the food source for long enough to starve them out.

imo, good luck, but luckily it's just AEFW's you still have tons of beautiful corals they don't care about! in a few months or more you get a few sticks, double dip them and start over

He makes total sense. Let’s do this method. I have a 10 gallon tank, and I’ll put the acros in there. My priority is just to starve out the display of AEFW. I will cut my losses with the acros (I will still try to save them/cure them, but I won’t be disappointed if some don’t make it).

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

I saw a similar video, and definitely an approach to the issue. I personally wouldn't go that route.

My issue is that a lot of my acropora have encrusted on the rock.

I left a lot of the encrustation in the tank. The ones that were easily accessible I scraped with the tip on my bone cutters and the others that were inaccessible I just left alone.

I do have wrasses in the tank and perhaps the ease of scavenging worms from a flatter surface made it easier to pick at, or the fact that the worms couldn't find their way back to the remaining encrusted base and just starved.

Side note: Because I left some bases intact, and didn't put the colonies back in their original spots, I now have colonies of the same coral in different locations of the tank.

It sounds to me that your tank has a greater infestation, especially not identifying the problem right away. I caught my issue rather quickly when it was only affecting a few acros. I was able to identify the bite marks and further confirm aefw by spotting the orange eggs on the newley exposed coral skeleton.

at the time, I thought that my decision to remove everything was drastic, especially talking with other seasoned hobbyist that have dealt with this issue. It was a lot of work, but now that it's in my rear view mirror, I'm glad that I put in all that effort.

I'm not trying to convince you. But I see it as, if you leave it alone, your colonies are going to perish, but viewing it from the perspective that you have to minimize loss and take the appropriate action to starve the ones in the tank out, and kill the ones on the acros. Then dip every 6 days to kill off the remaining and newly hatched. In thw long run you'll be happier.

 

[Miami Reef]

Can I solve my AEFW problem in one QT tank, or do I need multiple with sterilizing in between?

 

[Miami Reef]

I did it, guys.

I’m so proud of myself.

I’m going over the entire aquascape and scraping any last acropora cell using my bone cutters.

 

[Miami Reef]

Tank update. Yes. I know my lights are crooked.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I did it, guys.

I’m so proud of myself.

I’m going over the entire aquascape and scraping any last acropora cell using my bone cutters.

I'm proud of you too! it's a hard thing to do physically and mentally, but you will be happy you did it one day.

100XP points!

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Can I solve my AEFW problem in one QT tank, or do I need multiple with sterilizing in between?

1 tank, my regimen was to dip every acro every 6 days.

I use this brand:
BulkSupplements.com Potassium Chloride Powder - Potassium Supplement Powder, Potassium Chloride Salt Substitute, Pure Potassium - Potassium Salt, Gluten Free, 200mg per Serving, 1kg (2.2 lbs) https://a.co/d/7wSSuL5



Mixed 2 tbsp to 1 gallon of tank water, soaked each acro for 7 minutes while using the turkey baster to blow the worms off. After the 2nd treatment, I wasn't able to see any worms with the naked eye, but it was necessary to stay the course because of any newly hatched worms.

After 6 weeks, then the pain staking process of reattached them to the rock started.

I combed through my photos and found a photo of all my acros glued to 4" tiles.

As you can see a lot of them were trimmed down to nubs but bounced back rather quickly.


You have a lot of work ahead of you... I certainly don't envy you. Hehe

 

[Miami Reef]

1 tank, my regimen was to dip every acro every 6 days.

I use this brand:
BulkSupplements.com Potassium Chloride Powder - Potassium Supplement Powder, Potassium Chloride Salt Substitute, Pure Potassium - Potassium Salt, Gluten Free, 200mg per Serving, 1kg (2.2 lbs) https://a.co/d/7wSSuL5

Got it.

Why Potassium chloride and not Bayer? (I have both, just curious).

Is there a concern of the flatworms jumping off the corals before the dip, then reinfecting the in the same QT?

Anyway, I will turn off all flow and slowly remove the frag rack.

 

[i cant think]

Got it.

Why Potassium chloride and not Bayer? (I have both, just curious).

Is there a concern of the flatworms jumping off the corals before the dip, then reinfecting the in the same QT?

Anyway, I will turn off all flow and slowly remove the frag rack.

You’re not the only one who may face something they didn’t expect!

I may finally face ich or velvet (although I’m hoping I don’t). Unfortunately my newest fish in my nano is fairly dusty looking.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Why Potassium chloride and not Bayer? (I have both, just curious).

Prefernce really, after Bayer changed their name, I never took the time to learn if it was the exact same thing.

Plus, potassium chloride triggers a response of the coral to slime up which isn't really a bad thing, it seems that shedding that mucas helps in some sort of way.

Is there a concern of the flatworms jumping off the corals before the dip, then reinfecting the in the same QT?

I can't speak smartly on that except to say that if a worm bails off an acro, its probably on its way out already. And if it isn't, it will have a hard time finding its way back before it starves.

 

[chipchipbro]

You’re not the only one who may face something they didn’t expect!

I may finally face ich or velvet (although I’m hoping I don’t). Unfortunately my newest fish in my nano is fairly dusty looking.

I faced velvet once and it was the worst ever.
I think no fish survived

 

[Miami Reef]

Should I remove the sand? Pardon the dirty tank. It’s getting a nice water change today with the walls scraped. I recently set this tank up for fun (before I knew I had AEFW), but god the timing was right.

 

[i cant think]

Should I remove the sand? Pardon the dirty tank. It’s getting a nice water change today with the walls scraped. I recently set this tank up for fun (before I knew I had AEFW), but god the timing was right.

I’d leave the sand in as it’ll be holding bacteria to keep a stable tank

 

[Miami Reef]

I’d leave the sand in as it’ll be holding bacteria to keep a stable tank

Hey, I wanted to show you something. One of my staghorn acropora reminded me of something very similar to what you used to have. Under room lights.

 

[i cant think]

Hey, I wanted to show you something. One of my staghorn acropora reminded me of something very similar to what you used to have. Under room lights.

Im still trying to find another frag of that Staghorn, I’ve currently got a short list of frags I have had that I want to get again. Finally crossed an oldie off;

Now just to find a blue tipped stag again as my next one to cross off. Then I think I’m done for now on acros and it’ll be a case of filling my LPS wall