Tank upgrade with flatworms strategy?

[jetson]

I will soon be upgrading my 75 gallon to a 120/30 sump. What I’m trying to figure out is the best way to make sure that I don’t take flatworms into the new system. I’ve not used flatworm exit yet, but have heard that it is not necessarily 100% effective the first time.

The only fish at the moment are a handful of mollies. Corals are a mix of sps and lps and there is a lot of it. Is a strategy of dipping each coral in coralRX or RODI and the rock in FW a sound approach? I don’t want to destroy the bacteria by dipping in FW, but don’t want to move the flatworms into the new system either.

Thanks for any feedback

 

[Tinnerito]

I will soon be upgrading my 75 gallon to a 120/30 sump. What I’m trying to figure out is the best way to make sure that I don’t take flatworms into the new system. I’ve not used flatworm exit yet, but have heard that it is not necessarily 100% effective the first time.

The only fish at the moment are a handful of mollies. Corals are a mix of sps and lps and there is a lot of it. Is a strategy of dipping each coral in coralRX or RODI and the rock in FW a sound approach? I don’t want to destroy the bacteria by dipping in FW, but don’t want to move the flatworms into the new system either.

Thanks for any feedback

perfect approach for the coral but if you're planning on keeping the rocks then you will want to do something about it. I had a similar scenario with bryopsis and I just ripped the bandaid by sterilizing the rock. I don't have any experience with flatworms personally but I would think that just quarantining the rocks in an empty tank would eventually get them all out. Maybe if you used something to lure them away from it

 

[KrisReef]

Pull everything out that is moving into the new tank and submerge it in potassium chloride 2tblspoons/ gallon for 5-10 minutes (or more, the dip is gentle enough) and then rinse off the dead or dying worms (shrimp, and other bugs may die!) and put the remaining happy & worm free liverock and corals into the upgraded clean tank.

Rinse livesand to remove all fines, the a kcl rinse/dip and rinse with fresh (tap water is good enough) and avoid any flatworms in the future by dipping new additions!

 

[EnterName]

I like @KrisReef's approach much better than Flatworm eXit in your case, but eggs (some flatworms lay eggs) will still survive the treatment and you will end up with Flatworms in the new tank if you don't nuke everything.

If you use Flatworm eXit:
I personally would put the rocks in a bucket with tank water and a pump and then treat them there if you can. This works quite well to get rid of most of them before you treat the tank, and it reduces the amount of potentially released toxins. In a bucket overdosing isn't an issue, but the treatment will kill beneficial worms as well, while an effect on beneficial bacteria wasn't detectable through stalled nitrification or anything similar after the treatment.

Even if you treat the whole tank repeatedly, I doubt you will ever get rid of all of them. I observed a few individuals that seemingly weren't affected at all (even when overdosing the product in a bucket). They just seem to tolerate it. It's possible we're effectively breeding "resistant" flatworms in our tanks this way, like antibiotic resistant bacteria, since the ones that survive are the ones that reproduce.

I think you will need a long-term solution like a wrasse to keep their numbers low.

DO NOT overdose the product when treating the tank. My Copperband Butterfly fish started acting weird after a second treatment, even though there weren't many flatworms left, and toxins couldn't have been the issue after a decent amount of water changes and use of activated charcoal following the first round. I mostly treated harmless Acoels, which I'm not even sure would release toxins at all during treatment.