Peroxide and the use against flatworm

twilliard

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Hi all!
I am finally able to get this up. Sorry have been busy with another article
Lets talk about flatworm
Now I know a lot will say something like "flatworm exit is what I recommend"
People say this not even knowing what the population is.
Well here is the truth!!
For massive populations without the right cleanup protocol in place will have a disastrous outcome.
When they die, and with FWE they will, all the toxins will destroy a beautiful reef!
I am not going to get into post treatment cleanup. Sorry.

Now here is a solution to rid of these guys WITHOUT death to the flatworm.
Peroxide
1ml per 8 gallons
Mechanical cleanup is all that is needed!
It wont kill them they just end up in your sump socks or hob filtration.
Do this every 24 hours till they are gone.
I found this method by mistake. I wiped out all my beloved flatworm doing intank peroxide treatment for bryopsis.
So does this work you may ask?
Yes I have proof, poor guys :(

@Shep
 

peedee

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awesome thank you....i have a flatworm problem and don't want to deal with the toxins and clean up. I recently got some wrasses to take care of them....but i may assist them with the peroxide starting next week. I think I've read before, but to be sure, will any basic peroxide from the store will work? What is your affection for flatworms? And do you have anything written about peroxide treatment for bryopsis?
 

Shep

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Awesome! Thank you so much :D
 
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twilliard

twilliard

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awesome thank you....i have a flatworm problem and don't want to deal with the toxins and clean up. I recently got some wrasses to take care of them....but i may assist them with the peroxide starting next week. I think I've read before, but to be sure, will any basic peroxide from the store will work? What is your affection for flatworms? And do you have anything written about peroxide treatment for bryopsis?
Sorry trying to catch up on my threads!
Flatworms..
Over the years of studying these guys I have found one common problem. Toxins.
Now when I started working with @brandon429 I stumbled across something amazing!
Peroxide stuns them but not to a point of death! I told my wife, this will be the future of flatworm control with no toxin release.
I have experimented with every medication I could get my hands on for almost 10 years now. Everything used had collateral consequences.
Thats why I love flatworm, resiliant, masters at hiding and tough to rid of up until now.

Now bryopsis
Peroxide is the ultimate killer of most all algae.
I have not written anything up yet because brandon has a pretty good thread on it.
There you can see, twords the end, me killing bryopsis with peroxide.

Peroxide is a multi killing element!
And to the day still working with it :)
 

brandon429

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so glad to see peroxide can be used for something other than board controversy heh and killing algae, we have another poster experimenting with killing vermetid snails with it too. we find peroxide safe for the lions share of reef animals we keep but lysmata cleaners and apparently small acoel invaders as a handy addition, I wasn't aware of these other kill options for it before visiting with TW but enjoy reading about the new finds~

a working list of sensitive non targets might be helpful in these alternate application settings:

1 most sensitive is all lysmata cleaners
2 decorative macro algae for clear reasons
3. hosting anems like sebae heteractis show sensitivity to peroxide although no losses, just angry anems
4. xenia can be lost
5. coralline shall bleach and come back
6. hermodice fire worms will die quick

if I think of any more ill update but those are the majors with the lysmata being the only real loss I can recall among a thousand doses, the other 5 typically hold up but we did have them reported at times.

most corals known will tolerate additions hovering around one mil to ten gallons of tank water

maybe that will help in considering the non targets if a full system dose is needed to zap some acoels
B
 
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twilliard

twilliard

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so glad to see peroxide can be used for something other than board controversy heh and killing algae, we have another poster experimenting with killing vermetid snails with it too. we find peroxide safe for the lions share of reef animals we keep but lysmata cleaners and apparently small acoel invaders as a handy addition, I wasn't aware of these other kill options for it before visiting with TW but enjoy reading about the new finds~

a working list of sensitive non targets might be helpful in these alternate application settings:

1 most sensitive is all lysmata cleaners
2 decorative macro algae for clear reasons
3. hosting anems like sebae heteractis show sensitivity to peroxide although no losses, just angry anems
4. xenia can be lost
5. coralline shall bleach and come back
6. hermodice fire worms will die quick

if I think of any more ill update but those are the majors with the lysmata being the only real loss I can recall among a thousand doses, the other 5 typically hold up but we did have them reported at times.

most corals known will tolerate additions hovering around one mil to ten gallons of tank water

maybe that will help in considering the non targets if a full system dose is needed to zap some acoels
B
Thank you brandon for your interest!
If it wasnt for you I would still be working with harsh medications
 

NanaReefer

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@twilliard At 10ml per 10g for a total of 43ml it killed my Skunk Cleaner Shrimp, my Candy Cane totally pinched up and spewed mucus everywhere, all Zoas closed up and the Fire & Ice completely morphed into a different color. Surprisingly my Stylo & BN were completely unaffected.
 
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twilliard

twilliard

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@twilliard At 10ml per 10g for a total of 43ml it killed my Skunk Cleaner Shrimp, my Candy Cane totally pinched up and spewed mucus everywhere, all Zoas closed up and the Fire & Ice completely morphed into a different color. Surprisingly my Stylo & BN were completely unaffected.
Ohh my!!!
Not 10ml per 10 gallons!
Oh wait.. I remember you you had those zoas that changed color and I said to give it a name :)
Yes that was an overdose
 

brandon429

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that was the amount that Russ accidentally put in his big sps reef, this is the second 10x overdose im reading about and its fascinating that the sps make it, and the system doesn't recycle. back in the day, it was said that literally any amnt of peroxide would kill off bacteria, but we knew both in direct microbiological surface testing that wasn't the case and none of the tank doses using 1 mil per ten gallons had losses of bac (ammonia and nitrite reading elevations as indicators)

I believe all these corals will rebound from it amazingly enough, save for a little color stress heh
 

dmh41532

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I've been using this method alittle over a week, I haven't really seem much happen, but I've got a really bad infestation, like everything but the corals is covered. The coral aren't bothered with the peroxide, dosent seem to bother the snails and hermits either.
 

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Just a quick update: started dosing last night. I estimate that my total system volume is about 85 gallons, so I went ahead and dosed 11 ml 3% peroxide. In preparation of this, I added fresh carbon to my reactor and .installed a freshly cleaned filter sock. Dosed at 9pm last night, woke up this morning to substantially less flatworms visible on the glass. Will be doing this again tonight and will judge from there what my next course of action will be.

I have what I consider a fairly large infestation as the flatworms were visible on the rock work, corals and glass at all times of the day. I have lost 4 sps frags to what I'm attributing to flatworms at this point.
 
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twilliard

twilliard

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Sorry guys not all my alerts are coming through!

As of right now I am unsure of the battle with AEFW as I do not have any to test with.
Dose while lights are off.
With the proper dosage you will see more caught in the filter methods.
Now depending on species some of these guys are tough!
I always recommend doing a test before hand.
Take a clear dixy cup.
Fill half full of water.
Introduce your flatworm.
Let them attach to the sides and bottom.
Add 1ml of 3% peroxide and stir gently
Watch how they respond, swimming in circles or irritated.
Now check in an hour. Life???
 

Caliwagon

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Figured I'd give a bit of an update on my use of this method.

I started using hydrogen peroxide last Monday (10 days ago). I determined that I needed to dose 11 ml each night for my total system volume. I would dose at about 9 pm each night and left my carbon reactor (added new carbon prior to dosing) and protein skimmer running. I dosed for 7 nights as I had a very large population evident in my tank. On night 8, I replaced the filter sock, cleaned the skimmer and let the tank "rest". Night 9, with a much lower population evident, I dosed 65 drops of flatworm exit and watched the tank over the next 5ish hours. Yesterday was another "rest" day, and this evening I have dosed 100 total drops of flatworm exit. I will base my next plan of attack when I get a good look at my tank tomorrow.

A few notes: I feel like the hydrogen peroxide was an ingenious find and a very useful tool. The use of it before dosing flatworm exit, I feel, has mitigated the concerns with the use of flatworm exit. I did notice that my corals reacted to the first dosing of FE, but haven't reacted the same way today.

I only have a 6 line wrasse in my system as far as fish go. 1 coral banded shrimp, 1 emerald crab, trochus, 1 Mexican turbo, and assorted hermits in the tank currently. I noticed no ill affects to any thus far.

Hope this helps anyone considering using this.
 
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Sabellafella

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Ok so someone please enlighten me. Got dinos in both my tanks . they both get same water from water changes. Same food. Same mechanical filtration . no cross contamination other then a pipette i use to feed and they both got dinos (the bad bad snail killing, whaling messenterial filament kind) i use peroxide as a dip and as a dip only for red wire brush and bryopsis . now ive never dosed a tank and justin credibles crazyyy mind somehow led me to buying a bottle of 35% hydrogen peroxide. My dt that im really really stressed out about houses enuff corals that iwould litterally quit the hobby if they died (plus fish and snails) , and the other is my coralfrag tank qt that carrys a cleaner shrimp and an anemone. Any thoughts were,how,time to start and keep me sane while dosing this
 

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