Perry's 50Gallon AIO Waterbox Cube

[najer]

reminds me I have to revisit your thread, just have to set aside a half day to do so

Good luck with that!

 

[Perry]

Ok, back to good, bad, and ugly... I have had an ongoing issue with Red Planaria, to the point of nearly covering all live rock. The spotted mandarin goby for sure eats them, but cannot keep the infestation down. Yesterday I prepared 20 gallons of fresh saltwater, in preparation for a FE treatment. Everything seemed good, I siphoned bottom of a 5 gallon bucket, then ran treatment, then within 20 minutes, began siphoning the dead ones, which was 2 more bucket bottoms covered. I then replaced water, 60% roughly. I changed carbon, so it was fresh. Believe it or not, I still ended up netting a couple hundred more dead ones. All seemed well, some corals closed down, but eventually opened towards the end of the day. This morning I checked on the tank, and found a dead clown and chromis, still one chromis missing. The mandarin, female clown, and cryptic wrasse are swimming and eating fine.
Please, anyone reading, do not underestimate these buggers, they suck, and are totally hard to eradicate. Moving forward, I will continue treatments prior to every water change each week, this way I will not reach infestation levels again, hence not allowing for mass die off poisoning. I would love to think the mandarin will now keep up, but not going to rely solely on the little guy, I am determined to end this battle once and for all. Fortunately, only corals looking upset are shrooms, but they should bounce back no problem.
Red Planaria is no joke, will be also adding a yellow coris wrasse as well. My advise to anyone who is reading, is to firstly dip all new arrivals, ensuring to knock them off before going to the tank. Next, keep a wrasse known to prey on them, or mandarin. Follow the directions to the tee, which I did, but the infestation was bad, so as soon as you spot one, get FE, and treat, you cannot underestimate the amount of these pests not visible, nor the poison they release. I am certain my prior attempts, and losses are 100% attributed to this toxin. 1 treatment will not do it, so this us why I will treat weekly regardless, at least my next 4 to 5 weeks/ water changes. Sorry for the rant, but very sad to lose fish

 

[Why-Me]

Wow sorry to hear you lose fish like that and sorry to hear of your infestation.
Thank you for the warning.

 

[najer]

That sucks, never heard of using Fe, at 2 or 3 dead fish I would not try it again, not an expert on fish but maybe Fe is poisonous to some?
If you can siphon into a sock in the sump you can siphon all day if you want, keep carbon fresh, I did this and eradicated an epidemic, you can even add floss to the sock, gentler landing for the planaria, less chance they will explode!

 

[Perry]

Wow sorry to hear you lose fish like that and sorry to hear of your infestation.
Thank you for the warning.

Your welcome my friend! 15 years at this, and never had a problem with these pests! This tank is throwing every reefing challenge imaginable at me, but not giving in, nope, not 1 bit I would much rather welcome RB's or AEFW over RP, this has been a real nightmare! If you go back on this thread, you can see how I broke the tank down and killed the rock, dipped in muriatic acid, soaked in bleach, and still........ RP!!! Likely my frags in quarantine at the time still had them, despite dipping. Good news today though, have not spotted one RP yet, but will continue the gameplan

 

[najer]

Oh, duh, Flatworm exit, my bad, chemical, I would never try it!

 

[Perry]

That sucks, never heard of using Fe, at 2 or 3 dead fish I would not try it again, not an expert on fish but maybe Fe is poisonous to some?
If you can siphon into a sock in the sump you can siphon all day if you want, keep carbon fresh, I did this and eradicated an epidemic, you can even add floss to the sock, gentler landing for the planaria, less chance they will explode!

The chemical itself is harmless, always has been each time used in the past. Point for me is, that this was a total infestation, I would imagine that we were looking at a couple thousand, maybe more. The next treatment will not be able to allow for the population to become strong again, therefore the harmless chemical, shouldn't have to kill so many. I am 100% certain it was the RP dying that harmed the fish. Hopefully my problem will help or encourage others reading

 

[Perry]

Some coral photos this morning, despite losing 3 fish, I am staying positive, and hopefully RP is in the rearview mirror

 

[Perry]

Update:
Since the FE treatment, with 3 fish losses, I have not been able to spot any Red Planaria. The spotted mandarin still cruises the tank, presumably hunting. Female clown hosted Duncan colony which serves as a center piece in this tank. The Cryptic sixline also made it. Next fish will be a small yellow coris wrasse, and male clown.
Also, I raised the Kessil a360we to highest height(20") above water line, and changed the schedule to lower intensity, peaking at 45%, but raising color to 40% peak, with much less blue. This will deliver all I need for amvient, white light spill into the tank, using Block2 145 watt led panel to 80% blue peak, and 60% UV. No other colors, (red/green channel, white channel ZERO %). Kessil a360we directly over mangroves, in hopes to grow them without use of any other lights .
That is about all for now

 

[Lilmatty5dimes]

Tank is looking great man. Sorry to hear about the fish lose. Flatworm definitely suck.