HELP—Flatworms in a new tank!!!

[Virginia Reef]

I have 90 lbs of cured LR in a 55g “holding” tank. Also have a handful of snails and a few hermits. The LR has nice coralline and some macroalgae. I also have the following corals: 2 Tubipora (pipe-organ/clove), green and orange Zoanthid colonies, Florida Ricordia, green hairy mushrooms, and a cluster of xenia. The Tubipora are about 5” in diameter and are nice round shapes. The others are mostly on small pieces of rock.

I have a heavy infestation of flatworms. Here are my questions: 1) is it fairly safe to do a freshwater dip (as recommended in Delbeek and Sprung) of all of the rock without coral? 2) Will the macroalgae be affected? 3) Will the freshwater dip affect the biological filtration capacity of the LR? 4) Can some or all of the coral be dipped? Delbeek and Sprung suggest that hard corals and leathers do best in the freshwater dip but never really say anything about the coral species that I have. 5) Are there other remedies that I should consider? Chemical? 6) What about any of the following natural predators: mandarins, arrow crabs, six-line (or other) wrasse, shrimp, nudibranch, or others?

I am ready to put the LR and/or coral in my 90g tank with a 4” sandbed. This tank is currently “sterile”-just set it up. Plumbing works and cloudiness has settled. I have the following on this tank: 2x175 watt MH 10,000k, 2x65 watt PC actinic 7,100k, seaclone in-sump skimmer (yes, it works), and 2 powerheads. Salinity is 1.025, calcium is 450. ph is 8.2, ammonia and nitrites are zero, nitrates are 10, temp is 80.

Many thanks for your thoughts.
:evil:

 

[TurboRook]

By all means, use freshwater dips to get rid of the flatworms before adding them to your main tank. In my experience, siphoning and freshwater dips are by far the most effective methods of erradicating them. Wrasses and mandarins eat some flatworms, but not all species, and the C. varians slugs tend to have short life spans. Freshwater dips, on the other hand work 100% of the time. A little patience and work now will keep them from becoming a plague in your main tank. As far as the live rock goes, I've never had issues with ammonia spikes after short dips, but I never dipped all my rock at once. Hope this helps.

 

[npaden]

Just be prepared for some of the flatworms to make it into the 90 even with freshwater dips. I have a few buddies who have fought with flatworms for years and never successfully eradicated them. I have flatworms in my tank, but they never reached plague proportions and have actually been declining steadily over the last several months. I would for sure at least do a fw dip on the rock, etc. you are transferring though, it would be better than nothing.

FWIW, Nathan

 

[Anonymous]

I would FW dip them before moving them. Siphon what you can out of the tank you want clean. And then try adding a 6-line wrasse to help eradicate them.

My 6-lines totally solved my problems. But, I noticed my problem well before it got to plague proportions and still siphoned when I saw them.

 

[Virginia Reef]

Thanks for your help. I will FW dip the rock, skip the dip on the corals and add a six-line.

 

[MadMorf]

Charles Delbeek has a good reply to a letter concerning this problem in the latest Aquarium Fish Monthly...

One thing I have been doing to get rid of flatworms is to leave the lights off for 2 or 3 days. You'll probably notice the worms climbing up the glass in the brightest portion. Then, when I turn the lights back on, they all climb right up to the water's edge, where I scrape them off with a toothbrush...

I've done this 3 times with no apparent harm to any other tank inhabitants and my flatworm population seems to be down about 90% from the previous levels...

For what it's worth...

 

[Anonymous]

You'll probably notice the worms climbing up the glass in the brightest portion. Then, when I turn the lights back on, they all climb right up to the water's edge, where I scrape them off with a toothbrush...

This is because they have a photosynthetic symbiont just like corals do.

LIght helps them survive.