I ended up finding some flatworm exit at Barrier Reef. As far as my process I will definitely blog away.
I had no idea that those little red flakes were worms...I assumed algae..so needless to say my infestation is nasty.. I came back from vacation and it was like the world hatched...
So..my tank is full of worms that look like little red flakes... as bad as it gets.. bummer...
Ok so far my tank has the following creatures:
Torch coral
Candy cap red coral
Brain coral
Live rock
Lots of hermits the reef safe kind..supposedly we will see..
A few snails of several varieties.
2 Pajama Cardinals
1 blenny
1 clown
Luckily not a lot of things to loose if this goes wrong..I guess it is good I am taking this all so slowly
Process:
1st: I blew all the rock off with a power head to try and lift out the worms as many as I could into the water for the skimmer to get. Tried to syphon off a lot of live worms where I could. Which is quite challenging as a short gal with a very LARGE tank.
2nd: Made salt water 40 gallons to accommodate a potential 25% water change.
3rd: prepped a phosban 550 with fresh carbon to set aside for after the treatment.
4th: Put the treatment amount into the sump and after a few minutes the worms started to die off and float up. after 30 minutes my tank was full of creepy crawly worms coming out of the nooks and crannys of the rocks.. that were not very happy most are dying off. I waited about an hour. Then my clown started to look stressed and my torch was puffy..so blew off the rocks again with the powerhead to lift off any stuck dead worms into the water. Sometimes they get sticky and clump together. these I hand siphoned.
5th: started up carbon filter.
6th: Cranked up skimmer even more
7th: cranked up the vortexes to kick up more debris..
8th: Now I wait a few before I start water change as the water is very cloudy and I want to see the bottom so I can really work the sand bed in the water change.. I have to get a lot of these worms out so they don't nitrogen spike my tank. The carbon is supposed to help with that.
Once that is done.. I will clean out the skimmer one more time and I am done for the night and will see what the tank looks like in the morning.
I have a feeling I will need to do another dose. So I will prep more water tomorrow while at work to prepare for another BIG water change on new years eve.
I need to stop and get more carbon and another dose too I only have half a dose left..I think there will be more live ones..