IHaveCrabs
Premium member
This seems to be a pretty popular topic when searching other forums but I always have seen varied recommendations and responses so I'm going to give you a experienced based overview of what I went through with a 120g DT, 20g 2nd DT, and 20g Sump.
Lessons Learned (From my experience... Continue reading as your experience may differ depending on how many you have)
First Treatment
The preceding week, I spent an hour a day vacuuming out the sand and blowing with a turkey baster in all the crevices. The benefit with the vacuum is that it went directly into the filter sock in my sump, so 100% of those FW were removed from the tank. The turkey baster disloged a lot of FW's but I'm unsure how many of those made it into the overflow and into he filter sock to be removed.
You will lose fish if you do not do your best to get as many out of the tank as possible.
After doing the above work, I treated the tank with the recommended dosage (I actually dosed for 150 gallons ignoring rock and sand volume). The effect was immediate. I started carbon which was the Marineland Black Diamond with a simple pump feeding a tube that went directly into the rinsed container of Carbon. This actively forced water through the carbon and out small drill holes.
I then used about 2" of rigid airline tubing attached to around 8' of flex tubing to catch any of the FW's that were dying. This water was fed into a bucket and I stopped periodically to add fresh SW. FYI, It is very hard to catch them while the flow is still on in the tank.....
My fish went a little nuts... Swimming sideways and darting. This, I can now confirm, is from the toxins. I immediately went out and bought a poly filter.
Ran Carbon and Poly-filters for 24 hours then removed.
Second Treatment
Day 3, I saw a few FW's had survived. Some were relatively still large. Based on this, I didn't want more eggs layed since I was waiting 7 days to re-treat, I dosed a double dose.
This treatment, I did prepare and use carbon for a short period and again used the poly filter. I probably had about 25-30 visible deaths. I vacuumed the sand again to try and pull out any that I couldn't see. Pulled carbon out after a few hours and left the Poly Filter in for 24 hours.
Third (and hopefully final) Treatment
About 5 days after the second treatment, I saw a few tiny FW's. I assume they were new hatchlings so I ordered another FWE and gave them a few more days to allow any more to hatch. I assume that they do not become sexually mature for at least a few days but didn't want to rush and miss any that were going to hatch.
I completed a double dose (300g) and this time, because there were so few flatworms, I left the mediation active in the system for 2 hours before adding carbon or the poly filter. My reasoning behind this is because the toxins are what is damaging to the fish and I only saw a few tiny FW's in the tank. After the second dose, I only have `25-30 visible deaths so I took a small gamble in hopes that the extra time would be more detrimental to FW's that might be hiding where the medicated water was taking longer to get to.
So far, we are looking up. No FW's spotted but since we do not know much about their lifecycle and how long the eggs can stay dormant, I'm planning on treating once more in the case that any observations shows the tiny FW's resurfacing.
Thanks for reading if you got this far and hopefully this helps!
- - - Updated - - -
No fish or coral fatalities.
I had one fish (Blue Tang) dart into his rock and damaged his head, but he recovered just fine.
Corals had no ill effect.
Note, my brittle starfish were not amused. Most went stiff and fell off their rocks but they all recovered as far as I could tell. No issues to Pods or Shrimp (Blood red)
Lessons Learned (From my experience... Continue reading as your experience may differ depending on how many you have)
- Don't ever think you'll get away with purchasing 1 FWE bottle (unless you have a 75g tank or smaller, maybe).
- Plan on treating three times. The last two with 2x the dose minimum.
- Vacuuming the sand/gravel was one of the most helpful ways to get the planaria out of the tank, pre-treatment. Note, I had very coarse aragonite.
- There are many more hidden than you think.
- Carbon and Poly-Filters are required! Carbon NEEDS to be actively filtered and not passive. Also Poly-Filters do not take care of all the medication removal.
- Lastly, treat when you see your first FW. Don't wait like me and "hope" your problem will go away on its own.
- I can 99% confirm that FWE is NOT harmful in the short term to your fish. See the last treatment for more details.
First Treatment
The preceding week, I spent an hour a day vacuuming out the sand and blowing with a turkey baster in all the crevices. The benefit with the vacuum is that it went directly into the filter sock in my sump, so 100% of those FW were removed from the tank. The turkey baster disloged a lot of FW's but I'm unsure how many of those made it into the overflow and into he filter sock to be removed.
You will lose fish if you do not do your best to get as many out of the tank as possible.
After doing the above work, I treated the tank with the recommended dosage (I actually dosed for 150 gallons ignoring rock and sand volume). The effect was immediate. I started carbon which was the Marineland Black Diamond with a simple pump feeding a tube that went directly into the rinsed container of Carbon. This actively forced water through the carbon and out small drill holes.
I then used about 2" of rigid airline tubing attached to around 8' of flex tubing to catch any of the FW's that were dying. This water was fed into a bucket and I stopped periodically to add fresh SW. FYI, It is very hard to catch them while the flow is still on in the tank.....
My fish went a little nuts... Swimming sideways and darting. This, I can now confirm, is from the toxins. I immediately went out and bought a poly filter.
Ran Carbon and Poly-filters for 24 hours then removed.
Second Treatment
Day 3, I saw a few FW's had survived. Some were relatively still large. Based on this, I didn't want more eggs layed since I was waiting 7 days to re-treat, I dosed a double dose.
This treatment, I did prepare and use carbon for a short period and again used the poly filter. I probably had about 25-30 visible deaths. I vacuumed the sand again to try and pull out any that I couldn't see. Pulled carbon out after a few hours and left the Poly Filter in for 24 hours.
Third (and hopefully final) Treatment
About 5 days after the second treatment, I saw a few tiny FW's. I assume they were new hatchlings so I ordered another FWE and gave them a few more days to allow any more to hatch. I assume that they do not become sexually mature for at least a few days but didn't want to rush and miss any that were going to hatch.
I completed a double dose (300g) and this time, because there were so few flatworms, I left the mediation active in the system for 2 hours before adding carbon or the poly filter. My reasoning behind this is because the toxins are what is damaging to the fish and I only saw a few tiny FW's in the tank. After the second dose, I only have `25-30 visible deaths so I took a small gamble in hopes that the extra time would be more detrimental to FW's that might be hiding where the medicated water was taking longer to get to.
So far, we are looking up. No FW's spotted but since we do not know much about their lifecycle and how long the eggs can stay dormant, I'm planning on treating once more in the case that any observations shows the tiny FW's resurfacing.
Thanks for reading if you got this far and hopefully this helps!
- - - Updated - - -
No fish or coral fatalities.
I had one fish (Blue Tang) dart into his rock and damaged his head, but he recovered just fine.
Corals had no ill effect.
Note, my brittle starfish were not amused. Most went stiff and fell off their rocks but they all recovered as far as I could tell. No issues to Pods or Shrimp (Blood red)
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