Red Planaria and a tank transfer

rja · Jul 3, 2023

Hey all,
I am setting up my new larger system and I have been suffering from red planaria in my current system. I would like to keep my live rock in my current tank and transfer that into my new tank. However, I have a massive RP infestation. What should be the best course of action?

I have a couple ideas:

- Cycle my new tank, move every coral and fish into the new tank, (dipping the corals as I go) then use FW exit on the current tank to kill off all the flatworms, then move my rock over. Well, perhaps use FW exit on my current rocks in a bucket of old tank water? Like maybe have a bucket of saltwater with FW dosed into it and take one rock at a time to slosh it around in the bucket then move it over?

- Cycle my new tank, move everything over at once, slosh the rocks around in a bucket of tank water to hopefully knock them all off. Then pray my future melanarus wrasse likes flatworms.

- Treat my current system, following the directions, and pray I do not have a total tank nuke.

- Completely start fresh in my new system, remove and dip all my corals I possibly can, and extend the process of cycling my new tank to hopefully get it mature enough to take on my corals without losing any.

Some of my corals are grown onto my rocks, so I will have to likely just accept that some flatworms are gonna end up into my new system regardless.

o2manyfish · Jul 3, 2023

I had a horrible experience with Salifrert Flatworm exit. While it killed the planaria, 45 min after dosing at 70% strength 100+ fish just fell dead to the bottom of the tank. So you have to be very careful.

You have the opportunity to isolate your fish from you aquascape and corals. Which would let you do a majors nuking without worrying about the fish.

I would recommend moving all you rock and corals to the new tank. Leave the fish in the original tank. Treat the new tank and nuke the crap out of them. Then do 1 or 2 massive water changes on the new tank, plus follow all the instructions for when dosing the Flat Worm Exit and then 24-48 hrs later move the fish from the old tank to the new tank.

Also good luck with the melanarus wrasse. I have a mild outbreak in my tank. I have Kupang Damsels, Springeri Damsels, Mandarins, Velvet Nudia, Yellow Coris and Melanarus wrasse and nobody seems interested in the Flatworms. Now I am on the hunt for a Yellow Damsel that supposedly gorges on them.

Dave B

rja · Jul 3, 2023

o2manyfish said:
I had a horrible experience with Salifrert Flatworm exit. While it killed the planaria, 45 min after dosing at 70% strength 100+ fish just fell dead to the bottom of the tank. So you have to be very careful.

You have the opportunity to isolate your fish from you aquascape and corals. Which would let you do a majors nuking without worrying about the fish.

I would recommend moving all you rock and corals to the new tank. Leave the fish in the original tank. Treat the new tank and nuke the crap out of them. Then do 1 or 2 massive water changes on the new tank, plus follow all the instructions for when dosing the Flat Worm Exit and then 24-48 hrs later move the fish from the old tank to the new tank.

Also good luck with the melanarus wrasse. I have a mild outbreak in my tank. I have Kupang Damsels, Springeri Damsels, Mandarins, Velvet Nudia, Yellow Coris and Melanarus wrasse and nobody seems interested in the Flatworms. Now I am on the hunt for a Yellow Damsel that supposedly gorges on them.

Dave B

Unfortunately the new tank is a total 100 gallon water volume and it has taken me like 2 days to fill the whole thing so I do not think that massive water changes are really an option here. That’s why I think that cycling the new tank with the current rock in it is probably the better option for me. Fortunately my current fish are just two clownfish. I have a six line but it wont be going into the new tank. So I am thinking I do a MB Start XLM cycle, add some aquacultured live rock to the sump, and then maybe put a royal gramma in the new tank to see how everything is after a couple weeks. Then move my clowns over. Is flatworm toxin toxic to corals? Because it might be a better option to leave my biocube running with just corals for a while til the new tank settle’s enough.