Something growing in my tank...please help me id

C

cpeavy

[Can anyone help me figure out what's growing or being deposited in my tank?? It's been up since June. Past month or so, this stuff has been popping up.

It looks like some brown, flake-encrusting algea (??) or something, all over the rock and on the sandbed. It's also a little on the glass. What do you think it is and how how do I get rid of it?? Any and all comments are appreciated...

PLease check out the 14 pics here.
:My Webpage

thanks,
Chris

:idea:]
 
[Though it can be tough to tell from pictures, I'd have to say it's not algae at all, but the flatworms you hear so much about. I've had them in my tank for years, and they aren't much of a problem. Many people I know who have had their tanks set up for years have them also. OTOH, in some cases, they have been known to be a real pest. I've read about some miracle cure to get rid of them, but I've not used it. I'm sure some people here can fill you in on the product and it's usage.

There are natural alternatives, but they tend to be pretty hit or miss.]
 
[you can use Seachem Flatworm Exit....I would be scard to use it but if you don't have too many corals the risk is not that bad.]
 
[That is Salifert Flatworm eXit. I'm about to dose that tonight, as I've already got my carbon running and am making fresh saltwater now. I vacuumed all all the ones I could find.]
 
[I just dosed my tank, and killed a bunch of em!

I just dosed my 55g with 25g (water volume) sump/refugium with Flatworm eXit at 8pm. I put in 60 drops at 8pm, and 30 more at 8:30.

My skimmer never did start pulling anything out, because it was just bubbling down in the base when I began. Carbon has been running through a Magnum 350 canister filter for the past hour.

Interestingly, many of the flatworms that died seemed to float out on strings, which I siphoned out whenever I saw them. Many were blowing around, which my Blue Damsel ate, but I didn't see any other fish show interest in them.

I changed about 17 gallons of water, basically replacing the volume in the sump and refugium.

My pH never dropped, until the water change. 8.42 to 8.37

Ammonia is testing 0.

The only creature that seemed affected by the entire treatment is my featherduster, whose feathers are curled up in a sad little ball.

The fish seemed unafffected, and ate food during the dosing period. I saw one bristleworm on the DSB in the display. Nassarius Snails seemed especially active, covering territory quickly but not really trying to escape anything.

The corals, zoos, and SPS seem unaffected. The two rock anemones are also normal. The White Star Polyps are fully retracted, but I blasted them extra well to get off the detritus off their mats.

Hopefully this is as exciting as it will get.]
 
[Follow up, 4 hours after beginning treatment:

I just finished looking over the tank more closely, and found maybe 6 or 7 that I siphoned out. A few more bristleworms are out in the open, which is unusual except at this time the lights would be out and perhaps they 'knew' it was time to seek food.

If I see any tomorrow, I'll probably siphon them out, but for now, I think this was a perfect example of all working just fine.

My skimmer (Aqua C EV-200) still has yet to restart itself, just boiling away in the black box (base), but the pH is still at 8.38 and temperature was 81.2F I didn't retest ammonia since it was 0 when I checked a few hours ago.

The featherduster looks better already, but my colt looks more compressed even though it is extending all the polyps.]
 
[Here is my experience using natural methods killing flatworms.

I ordered Chelidonura varians from Fishsupply.com
This is the flatworm eating nudibranch. In two seperate orders I ordered a total of 3. Only one arrived alive and he was a flatworm eating machine. The only problem was he liked to get in my overflow. After having him for about 3 weeks I notice he was gone and my serpent starfish was very fat. I don't know if the nudibranch died and was eaten or was actively hunted by the serpent star. At any rate he was eating flatworms but did not eradicate the tank. He was a beautiful addition to the tank and it was neat watching him suck up the flatworms. We could actually tell that he was growing and getting bigger.

C. varian definitely eats flatworms but the problem is they are expensive and ship poorly. Since they ship poorly most online retailers will not guarentee alive arrival. Fishsupply guarenteed the arrival and gave me credit for the ones that did not arrive alive. The only problem with that is the biggest expense is shipping which they do not reimburse.

I have heard that some damsels, the 6-line wrasse and the target mandarin goby will eat them. This may be true if you do not feed any other food to the tank. A good example of this is the tanks at Saltwater Solutions. They had flatworms in some of their tanks. They used 6-line wrasses and damsels to get rid of them but they did not feed them any other food. I have never seen my 6-line wrasse eat a flatworm yet.

I've just decided to live with them since they are not getting on my corals.]
 
[Steven,

I have a Target Mandarin, a Six Line Wrasse and a Blue Damsel in that tank, and none of them showed any interest in the flatworms (red planaria), so I decided this would be a better option.

I suffered no losses at all, and I just finished scouting the tank again looking for any live flatworms. I only found one dead on on the substrate. My featherduster looks completely happy again, and the Devil's Hand is extending more polyps today than I'm used to.]
 
[Flatworms, smlatworms. Once their food goes away, so do they. IME they really proliferate when I have a lot of detritus built up on the sand and rock from poor or non-existant tank keeping. I have had them from time to time and after I crank up the current and blow the detritus around and out of the tank, they seem to start disapearing until the food souce comes back. Try it and see.

Glad the miracle in a bottle worked for you Marc.]
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top