Flatworms!

[joker577]

I have thousands upon thousands on my rockwork and front of sand...i thought it was detritus! I was told of one product that was reef safe called flatworm away or somethin like that...do you guys have any other remedies? I have alot near my anemone and they feed off zooanthellae so that could be maybe a problem?

 

[redvipe2010]

I doubt that the flatworms are bothering the anemone. Start siphoning them out. Start a siphon with a powerhead and run a tube into a filter sock, catching the water in a bucket. Return the water when done, keep repeating.

Flatworm exit itself is not toxic. However, the flatworms will release toxins when they die. So it is very important to get as much as you can out before you use the flatworm exit. You will want to have carbon ready to run and also have water change water ready to go. I recommend watching your tank for 6+ hours after you dose.

When this happened to me, I siphoned as much as I could, then I removed a bunch of the rock and treated in buckets seperately, with a powerhead in the buckets. I also treated the tank at the same time.

 

[jamiehill]

Here is an excellent article on flatworms. I dealt with these a couple years ago and found that better flow, good skimming, and lowering nutrients in the tank while siphoning them out into a filter sock put a pretty quick stop to them.

http://www.melevsreef.com/flatworms.html

 

[joker577]

Yeah the guy who suggested the flatworm exit told me to do a FW dip on all my rocks and shake them, but most of my rocks have corals on them. I was thinking of doing what melev did, siphon + skim + water change + carbon

 

[Mugg1977]

Are you referring to the green flatworms?