My AEFW journey

Dowtish · Nov 28, 2012

Yeah. I looked into the zeovit product. Not enough proof there for me to justify spending that kind of money.

JonnyJ · Nov 28, 2012

Hey man, good luck with this all. What a nightmare. Sometimes it's inevitable, I've been through my fair share and its not fun. Just keep parameters steady and wait it out.

Dowtish · Nov 28, 2012

JonnyJ said:
Hey man, good luck with this all. What a nightmare. Sometimes it's inevitable, I've been through my fair share and its not fun. Just keep parameters steady and wait it out.

Thanks man. I am just attacking it head on, not letting it get to me. I am just glad I had the resources/equipment to set this thing up properly. I already am planning on adding a fuge to the system, and an ATO. Do it right, or dont do it at all, is my take on it right now.

turbo21 · Nov 28, 2012

I am starting to wonder if everyone has flatworms and just doesn't realize it. I always inspect incoming pieces but had no reason to check my in tank pieces. I think the only time they can truly affect the coral is if some other event happens in the tank (alk swing etc..)

I didn't realize i had them until i got lazy and had my alk drop below 7 and then the worms went nuts. I was wondering why things were going downhill and noticed the little buggers everywhere.

I have a buddy right now that has worms and has great color and tremendous growth on everything. He gave me some frags the other day and i saw the bite marks on his bonsai frags. He started basting last night and was watching some fly off

so what do you think of my theory?

Dowtish · Nov 28, 2012

turbo21 said:
I am starting to wonder if everyone has flatworms and just doesn't realize it. I always inspect incoming pieces but had no reason to check my in tank pieces. I think the only time they can truly affect the coral is if some other event happens in the tank (alk swing etc..)

I didn't realize i had them until i got lazy and had my alk drop below 7 and then the worms went nuts. I was wondering why things were going downhill and noticed the little buggers everywhere.

I have a buddy right now that has worms and has great color and tremendous growth on everything. He gave me some frags the other day and i saw the bite marks on his bonsai frags. He started basting last night and was watching some fly off

so what do you think of my theory?

I can say with almost total certainty there are plenty of folks that do not have AEFW in their tanks. I have read where people know they have them and just baste them off the coral. But I also think that if you check all your corals well, and with a little luck on your side, you can have an AEFW free tank. I have never heard of anything with alk parameters having to do with them getting out of hand. But I am an open-minded person, and have entertained the strange correlation with AEFW and Red Bugs. Being that there has been multiple reports that once someone had RB's, they treated for them, and then suddenly they had an outbreak of AEFW. The thought behind it is that, they either eat the worms, or just keep them off the coral. I did dip a few pieces a few months back that RB's on them, and they were the first to show signs of AEFW. hmmmm?

Dowtish · Nov 30, 2012

I made the correct assumption to reduce my dosing pumps to half once all my Acros were removed from the DT. The numbers have stayed spot on. At least that is one good thing.:smile:

schooleyosis · Nov 30, 2012

Good assumption. At least you know what you'll need to dose in the QT as well. Double bonus.

Dowtish · Nov 30, 2012

I added a 6 line wrasse yesterday. Did another round of dipping tonight. I only saw about 5 very small worms out of 12 plus pieces and nothing else, which is a great sign. I did rinse them in clean saltwater after dipping and yet I am now seeing multiple dead copepods and amiphipods floating all over the QT. This stuff is highly toxic to inverts, even after rinsing them. I also believe it killed my cleaner shrimp in my DT before I moved everything over.

bknapp · Nov 30, 2012

Stay on it man, good work and nice setup.

pickupman66 · Nov 30, 2012

Oh man! That explains alot. Mine died a few days after I dipped the first time now that I think about it. Wow.

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gmoney243 · Dec 1, 2012

I've done many dips and my shrimps all still alive. Maybe you guys needa rinse better lol

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pickupman66 · Dec 1, 2012

Probably. I dipped 3 rocks with corals on them in some dip that was a little too strong the first time.

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Dowtish · Dec 1, 2012

I can see why after dipping rocks. But I didnt see a single dead copepod in the dipping container. These were all in the tank.

How much better can you rinse? I pull them out of the dip, stick them into the clean saltwater and shake them a bit. Taking maybe 10 seconds. How long were you rinsing Mike?

Typed from my phone, because I have nothing better to do.

gmoney243 · Dec 1, 2012

Pretty much same thing give em a good rinse and shake. Sometimes I do a second rinse.

I was thinking maybe u guys are just dipping in rinse real quick
I usually soak em in the rinse for 30sec or so then shake real good in rinse.

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Dowtish · Dec 1, 2012

Well, I will say this. I didnt soak every frag when I was dipping the little pieces while still in the DT. but the fact that I rinsed and lost all these pods in the QT is crazy. they are everywhere.

Just did a water change.

pickupman66 · Dec 1, 2012

I rinsed for quite some time. Put them in clean water with powerhead. At least 2 or 3 minutes.

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Dowtish · Dec 1, 2012

Wow. See thats even scarier.

Typed from my phone, because I have nothing better to do.

pickupman66 · Dec 1, 2012

I dipped 3 decent sized rocks. Should have changed rinse water by the last one. I dipped one ofbthose encrusted rocks the other day and did instead of ice chest i used a 5 gallon bucket. It worked much better. Ill dip that same rock next week and will dip all the infected corals again too.

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6272862829 · Dec 1, 2012

The last time I dipped my corals it did something weird to my cleaner and fire shrimp. Usually they are all over the tank my cleaner more in the visible range and my fire all around the caves but the day after the dip they both were like stunt all day in one section of the tank and no they didnt molt it only lasted for a day. I usually have two rinsing containers one that I just shake the coral for a while and the orther I use with a smap pump and I place the coral there for 15 min

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quigimon · Dec 1, 2012

iiluisii said:
The last time I dipped my corals it did something weird to my cleaner and fire shrimp. Usually they are all over the tank my cleaner more in the visible range and my fire all around the caves but the day after the dip they both were like stunt all day in one section of the tank and no they didnt molt it only lasted for a day. I usually have two rinsing containers one that I just shake the coral for a while and the orther I use with a smap pump and I place the coral there for 15 min

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Bugs they might be eating may have ingested some of the dip and when they ate the bugs they may have gotten some of the chemical as well, just a guess but something to consider, good news is that they didn't die.